Mary Sommer was born Mary Margaret Shannon on January 15, 1923, in Mount
Pleasant, Iowa, to Fred Albert and Edna Mae (Jones) Shannon. Mary was the
fourth of five children and also the fourth to die. She died at the age of
85 on Saturday, April 19, 2008, at Little Company of Mary Hospital in San
Pedro, CA. Ultimately she died of complications due to severe scoliosis. Her
daughter, Carolyn McGrath, was by her side.
Mary lived in Manhattan, Kansas, from ages three to 15. Then she spent the
happiest year of her childhood in Williamstown, MA. She graduated from
Champaign High School in Champaign, IL, at the age of 17. She earned a BA
with honors in Political Science in 1944 from the University of Illinois.
She attended the graduate school of social work at the University of Chicago
from 1944-1945. She worked in Illinois and New York as a social worker until
she earned her Master of Social Work Degree in Clinical Social Work from the
University of Illinois in 1951. Mary retired from daily work as a Licensed
Clinical Social Worker as District Chief in the department of mental health
for the county of Los Angeles in 1985. She made history as the first
non-medical doctor to be a District Chief in Los Angeles. As her mind was
always strong and clear, she maintained her LCSW license and enjoyed
continuing education until she died.
On her 29th birthday she married holocaust survivor Rudolph Sommer, MD. They
had five children. Rudi also had a child by a prior marriage. They moved
from Illinois to California in 1955. After Rudi’s death, Mary married W.
Murray Schofield and lived in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. She loved to watch
the ships in Los Angeles harbor from their family room telescope.
Mary was an intelligent, compassionate, and loving friend, sister, wife,
mother and grandmother. She is uniformly described as “an elegant lady”.
Indeed, she rarely had a hair out of place. Her favorite interests were
travel, gardening, attending opera and theatre. But in her later years she
said that her greatest interests were her grandchildren, followed closely by
travel. She spent many happy days in Grass Valley with her grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters and a brother, both
husbands, son Michael Sommer who died as an infant, daughter Barbara Sommer,
and step daughter Monica Mastin. She is survived by son Richard Sommer;
daughter Francis Sommer; daughter Carolyn Sommer McGrath and her husband
Larry McGrath and their children, Larry Sommer McGrath and April Shannon
McGrath, all of Grass Valley, CA; sister Marjory King and her family of
Champaign, IL.
A graveside gathering was held on May 1, 2008, at Green Hills Memorial Park
in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Memorial contributions may be made to the
Tourette Syndrome Association Inc., 42-240 Bell Blvd. Suite 205, Bayside, NY
11361-9861.
Mary spent much of her life in emotional and physical pain. Although she
will be dearly missed, it is a comfort to her survivors to know that now she
is relieved of that pain and “sails with the tides”.