Mary Derrick-Thornberry

1934 - 2025

Mary Derrick-Thornberry July 9, 1934 - May 17, 2025 Mary (Shepard) Derrick-Thornberry passed away at home in Cle Elum on May 17, 2025. She was 90. Mary was born in Pelahatchie, MS, on July 9, 1934, to Lottie and Thomas Shepard, the sixth of seven children.

Mary began her lifelong passion with reading at the age of five. A child of rural Mississippi, this was her entrée into the world of interesting ideas and places.

A 1952 graduate of Crossroads High School in Pelahatchie, she married James Derrick that year. They had three children. During their 25-year marriage, as the wife of an airman in the US Air Force, Mary lived on bases in Arizona, Washington, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Texas. While stationed at the former airbase in Moses Lake, she completed her first degree as a Licensed Practical Nurse.

Divorced in 1977 and with her children all grown, Mary earned a BA at the University of Texas-Arlington in 1979 and an MA from Goddard College in Vermont in 1984. She considered the 'self-designed' degree in Ancient Egyptian History from Goddard one of her most significant achievements. After her retirement, Mary spent 15 years in Cairo, Egypt. It was there she married her second husband, Jon Thornberry, in 1999. They divorced in 2005.

Mary's philosophy of life was, "set forth and see the world." She did. She traveled by car, plane, train, ship, motorcycle, taxis, bus, camel, donkey, trucks shared with chickens, lambs, and goats, and shank's mare (walking). She explored Canada, Mexico, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. She visited six of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, only missing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Mary described herself as assertive. A few memorable moments demonstrating this attribute include: 1. getting a Roman taxi driver to refund his overcharge; 2. retrieving money stolen by two gypsy pickpockets; and 3. surviving a murder attempt when three traveling cohorts were intent on pushing her under the wheels of a train.

Determination was another attribute. She needed it when she wandered onto a military base in Egypt. Threatened with arrest, instead, Mary was taken via jeep to a gate and left to find her way across the desert to civilization.

Mary's determination was once again evident during the 2011 Arab Spring Uprising. From her apartment just off Tahrir Square in Cairo, she repeatedly repelled would-be attackers by hitting them with a rolling pin and throwing pots of boiling water out the window. Her actions garnered worldwide attention and made the news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC. NBC newscasters interviewed Mary from her apartment in Cairo, and in New York on her return to the United States. Determined to never again be without protection from "marauders," Mary lived the last six years of her life in Cle Elum with a regulation baseball bat and a wicked, long-bladed knife near her side.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her son, Philip (Linda) Derrick, Cle Elum; daughter, Melia Derrick, Minnesota; son, Keith (Kathy) Derrick, Oklahoma; grandsons: Matt Derrick, Oregon; Travis and Ian Derrick, Idaho; granddaughters: Kristen Hancox, Arkansas; Kacieleigh Douglass, Texas; Jessica Derrick-Elavsky, Minnesota.