Mary Yoke

Mary Alice Yoke of Corvallis died Tuesday. Mary Alice (also known as Mickey) was born to John J. McPherson and Mary Pearl Kelso on July 9, 1921, in Pullman, Wash., where her father was completing his education after World War I. Her father moved frequently as a school administrator in Washington and Oregon until 1930, when he became superintendent of schools on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. Mary finished her elementary schooling in a two-room public school on the reservation, then attended St. Mary's Hall in Faribault, Minn., and later graduated from Westhope High School in Westhope, N.D. After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Dakota in 1941, she returned to the ancestral home in Kitsap County, Wash., and entered the Law School at the University of Washington, but dropped out after the Pearl Harbor bombing. She spent World War II working for the U.S. Navy in Bremerton, Wash.; Kodiak, Alaska; and New York City. She spent the next 10 years at the University of Michigan as a student and a staff employee. She married John T. Yoke III on June 16, 1956, in Bremerton. They lived in Cincinnati, Ohio; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Tucson, Ariz.; and, since 1964, Corvallis, where her husband was a professor at Oregon State University. She was a homemaker, and a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church. She was engaged in volunteer work with the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, and was active in the Benton County Historical Society, the Benton County Genealogical Society and occasional music groups. She enjoyed travel. Her husband, John T. Yoke III, preceded her in death. Survivors include a daughter, Mary E. Faure-Yoke of Paris, France; two sons, John T. Yoke IV of Corvallis and James R. Yoke of Cupertino, Calif.; and grandchildren Timothy Faure and Sheena Faure of France, and Emily Yoke of California. Memorial contributions can be made to the Benton County Genealogical Society or the University of North Dakota Music Department, in care of McHenry Funeral Home. A memorial Mass will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday, March 3, at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Corvallis, with inurnment at St. Mary's Cemetery. No flowers, please.

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Mary Yoke

July 9, 1921 - February 22, 2011