Mary was born 100 years ago on December 22, 1925 in Rising Sun, Wisconsin, to Joseph and Margaret (Wood) Dolan. She was the first of eleven children. She spent most of her childhood on a farm in Rising Sun where she loved school in the one-room schoolhouse, Mass in the tiny Catholic Church there and helping her uncle Victor who was the caretaker for the cemetery. In her early 20’s the family moved to LaCrosse, Wisconsin. She worked in a garment factory and an Autolite factory during the war years. In 1952 she married the love of her life, George Kakuschka. They moved to Michigan where their 2 daughters, Diane and Karen were born and George worked as a steel worker.

In the early 1960’s the family moved to southern California and a few years later vacationed in Oregon. Mary fell in love with Oregon, which reminded her of Wisconsin. They bought a house up the Smith River outside of Reedsport on the Oregon coast and started a Winnebago business when Winnebago was just building canopies for pickup trucks. That grew as Winnebago evolved into the premier company for recreation vehicles. Mary did all the purchasing and managing of the parts store.

When not working in the business, she created Old McDonald’s Farm on their property up the Smith River. A quarter acre vegetable garden, 200 chickens, dogs, cats and a steer took her back to her early life in Wisconsin. Mary loved baking, tending her flower gardens and making crafts for the garden club and church events.

When her husband died in 2013, she moved to Lake Oswego to be near her daughters and their husbands. She loved baking for family and friends, for the Mercy Teams ministry and the funeral ministry at Our Lady of the Lake. She loved daily Mass, trying new restaurants, doing crafts and tending the garden.

All of her 10 siblings proceeded her in death. She is survived by her daughters, Diane Diamond (Bill), Karen Kakuschka (David Hattery) and descendants of her siblings. She will be buried next to her husband near St. John Catholic Church in Reedsport where they spent so many happy years.