Mary Anne Nelson MacLean

Mary Anne Nelson MacLean exited this challenging world for the more glorious next world on October 19, 2025. Mary Anne was born June 16, 1946 to Helen Maloney Nelson and Charles Marion (Sox) Nelson, Jr. both of whom served in World War II as naval Pharmacist Mates and who met while stationed at the same hospital after returning stateside.
Mary Anne grew up in Gonzales, attended the local school system until graduating from GHS as part of the very special "Class of 64". She attributed much of the success achieved later to having spent so many formative years with the "Class of 64" and felt honored to have been elected class president in both Sophomore and Senior years.
Next step was earning a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas and then employment as a Psychology Tech with the FAA in their Oklahoma City headquarters. Three years later Mary Anne moved to a sales position in 3M's fast growing Medical Division. Over the next 22 years she rose through the Health Care businesses and held various managerial and executive positions and completed an MBA at Pepperdine's Executive Training Center.
Most of those years she was based at 3M's world headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. That was where she met her husband, Hugh Cameron MacLean, an international bridge champion holding numerous championship titles. They managed to maintain a partnership despite international travel demands on each of them..... usually in different countries! They moved to Gonzales in 1997 to provide care and support to Mary Anne's mother, Helen, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimers.
Hugh continued playing Bridge at Nationals and Mary Anne served 3 terms on Gonzales City Council and then turned to animal rescue, becoming a co-founder of Friends of Gonzales Animal Shelter. The purpose of this organization was to stop euthanasia in the City's shelters and was achieved in 2006 when FOGAS contracted to manage the shelters.
Hugh passed away February 17, 2008 and has been missed every day since. Their reunion in Heaven must be very joyful ! Beloved family that Mary Anne must now leave are her brother, Daniel M. Nelson (Terry, the world's best sister-in-law), niece Lesley N. Gonzalez (Jorge) and great nieces Helena and Valentina.
Any memorials would be most appreciated by the Class of 64 CFGA (Community Foundation of the Gonzales Area, P.O. Box 1536, Gonzales, TX 78629), honoring our fallen heroes, or by Friends of Gonzales Animal Shelter, the FOGAS rescue group. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mary, please visit our floral store.