Mary Pierson Garrick was born in Chicago in 1920. She went to work at the Tribune Tower in 1940, codifying overseas messages received by Press Wireless, the first international radio-relay wire service. In 1942, she was sent to their office in Montevideo, Uruguay, where she met a Chicago engineer, David Garrick, who was installing GE x-ray equipment in the main hospital. They married and moved to Miami when David's naval reserve commission was activated. They moved to Tulsa in 1952, where David introduced the use of ground nut shells in oil well drilling-mud. In 1959, he died in a plane accident (Tulsa World, 3 July 1959, p. 1). Thereafter, Mary took a direct hand in the sale of her husband's business, Cherokee Lab Industries.

Mary volunteered as a docent at Philbrook Museum in the 1970's. In the 1980's, she became a discussion leader in the local Great Books program and began some twenty years of service with the Assistance League of Tulsa, at Friendship House and School Bell. With the Chrism Group of St. Mary's Parish, she was a lay minister at several nursing homes.

Mary is survived by her brother Tom Pierson, and her sons David, George, Michael and Bruce, her son J. B. having died in 1980.

Rosary will be Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., and Funeral Mass will be Thursday, 10:30 a.m., both at Christ the King Church.

FITZGERALD IVY CHAPEL 918-585-1151