Mary Maher left this world on September 19, 2015.

Mary was born January 30, 1909, in Pittsburg, KS, to Joseph and Rosie (O'korn) Zorc. Mary moved from Pittsburg with her parents and her 2 sisters, Josie and Rosie, to a homestead 12 miles south of Eagle Butte, SD.

She attended the Liabolt/Olsen School and received her 8th grade diploma. Mary worked hard on the family homestead during her school years helping her dad with farming and ranching duties. Mary learned cattle herding skills, how to harness a team of horses, and many other necessary skills of a homestead family.

She met a neighbor homesteader, Myron J. Maher at a school dance. They were married in Senica, SD, on June 24, 1933. Two children were born, Mary Jean "Babe" Maher and Robert "Bud" William Maher.

Myron divorced Mary and married Mary's sister (Rosie Zorc) in 1939. Myron moved

Mary and the two children to his mother's, Mary Maher's, home near Redfield, SD. Mary Jean attended 1st grade in a rural school. At the end of the school year, Mary and her children moved back to Eagle Butte, SD.

Mary found a house to rent and the next day she was hired by Loretta to work as a waitress and cook. On weekends, she carried water from the Eagle Butte well to do laundry and sewing for local residents. Loretta, a wonderful negro lady left Eagle Butte and Mary found another job in Kate Mc Carty's restaurant. With the help of the kind people of Eagle Butte, Mary moved from job to available job doing a variety of things: meat cutter and clerk in Naves Store, hotel cleaner, and assistant in the beauty shop for Hazel Johnson, telephone operator for the Eagle Butte phone company, bar maid, and 24 years as custodian for the Eagle Butte Liquor Store, and meanwhile helping her children attend school.

Mary managed to always do other things after a day's work. Many friends remember some of the "silly" things. One night she had a foot race from Eagle Butte to Dupree with Eric Brueski and she won! While working for the Eagle Butte Liquor Store, she made friends with the children waiting for their parents. She would give the child a quarter to go to the grocery store for a snack. She shoveled the sidewalk snow for numerous employers. She loved to play cards and tricks of all sorts. She even learned how to do Eric B's one foot out and sit on your heel trick. Despite all the coaxing, Mary wouldn't drive a car. "I have two feet." When a neighbor needed groceries, their mail, or some other favor, she completed the task by walking.

Reluctantly, she sold her home and moved to Sturgis to be with her daughter and grandkids.

Survivors include daughter, Mary Jean Forrester, Sturgis, SD; brother, Joe (Nina) Zorc, Eagle Butte, SD; five grandchildren, Kevin (Nicole) Forrester, Sturgis, Darla (Matt) Burge, Sturgis, Deborah Hughes, Rapid City, Carol Owsley, Gillette, WY, and Marty (Crystal) Maher, Tyler, TX; 12 great-grandchildren, Ty Forrester, Chad Forrester, Brooks Forrester, Marlee Burge, Jordan Burge, Hayden Burge, Jasmine Flakus, Haley Hughes, Cody Maher, Carson Maher, Brittany Guindon, and Josh Guindon.

Preceding her in death are her sisters, Sophie, Josie, Jenny, and Cecil; brother, William; son, Robert "Bud"; and granddaughter, Sharon.

A celebration of Mary Maher's life will be Monday September 28, 2015, at 11:00 a.m. at the VFW Club in Sturgis, SD.

A private inurnment will be in the Eagle Butte Cemetery on a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages you to plant a flower or tree in the place of your choice in Mary's memory.

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