Mary Ann Daane

02/08/1932 - 03/12/2025

Age 93, passed away on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, at the Chelsea Retirement Community. She was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, the daughter of Thomas Marion and Alice (Werfel) Pryor.
Mary Ann graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master of Social Work degree. Following graduation, she worked in a private practice as a clinical social worker. In 1979, she was elected the first President of the University of Michigan School of Social Work Alumni Association and continued to serve on it's board of governors for many years. She was a gourmet cook and consummate entertainer and an invitation to a dinner party at her dinner table was always a hot ticket. In part because of her cooking talents, she was selected as co-chair of the Bravo! Cookbook project, an ambitious undertaking which was a very successful fundraiser for the University's Musical Society. When the weather warmed continuing through snowfall, she could be found in her beautiful perennial garden which was almost an acre and was featured on the Ann Arbor Garden Walk, a tradition in its now thirty-second year.
On February 2, 1951, she married Roderick K. "Dick" Daane, and he preceded her in death on January 2, 2022. It was a seventy-year marriage full of love and mutual respect. With all of her accomplishments she remained open to new experiences. She had grown up fishing as a child at her parents' vacation home at Lake Charlevoix and when she married she started fly fishing with her husband and would fish in Michigan, at their beloved "Chimney Point", Montana, Argentina, the Bahamas, and New Zealand. In the fall she would accompany Dick and their dogs on treks through the woods. She downhill skied. She and Dick traveled extensively. She would play for hours with her grandchildren providing them with projects and crafts and took each grandchild on a "Sweet 16" trip, with just the two of them, to a destination of that grandchild's choice.
She is survived by her sons, Mark (Vicki) Daane of Chelsea, Tom (Melinda Menke) Daane of Kiawah Island, South Carolina; her daughters, Jennifer (Mark) Phillips of Farmington Hills, and Alison Daane of Grayling; her brother, David Pryor of Durham, North Carolina; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Nancy Keinholtz; and brother, Thomas Pryor.
No public services are planned. Memorial contributions may be made to Anglers of the Au Sable at https://www.ausableanglers.org/.