Mary Jane (Postlewait) Young

Mary Jane Young, age 86, died at home, surrounded by family, on November 13th, 2025, after a prolonged illness. Mary Jane Young (née Postlewait) was born in Quincy, Illinois, on May 20th, 1939, the first-born child of Lula Marie and John Ellis Postlewait. Along with her brother Michael, born four years later, they enjoyed a nomadic childhood in the Midwest, moving every couple of years to a new Army depot, following their father’s impressive civilian career in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. Mary Jane loved their life in Springfield, the state capital -- home to her favorite event of the year: the State Fair. During the Terre Haute, Indiana years, she completed junior high and started high school, distinguishing herself in activities ranging from girl scouts to glee club. Mary Jane always spoke fondly of her experience at Joliet Township, which, as a large urban high school near Chicago, was a world-expanding place for her. She took classes for community college credit and discovered modern dance. A famous black and white photo of her from this time proves her ferocity at fencing. It’s clear that she was cool from the start. The connective tissue through all of these years was her ability to make friends that she would keep for her entire life. She learned this ethic from her parents, who made friends their alternative family wherever they went, but she expanded on this practice, and deepened it. The last new friend she made was named Joy.

If you google the phrase “lifelong learner,” an image of Mary Jane pops up. Mary Jane was the embodiment of this concept and her agile, interdisciplinary mind led to a remarkably diverse career, and later in life, to her addiction to book groups, plural. After high school, she attended Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, which offered intensive three-week courses, taken one at a time. Here, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree, and forged a life-long friendship with her English Professor, poet Robert Dana. Next, she enrolled at Roosevelt University in Chicago to become certified as a medical technologist, and took her first job as a phlebotomist at a cardiology practice on Michigan Avenue. Early in her married life, she went back to school for a Bachelor’s degree in English at Augustana College, in Rock Island, Illinois, which she finished at Michigan State University with a degree in English Secondary Education and a minor in Botany. At Salem State College in Massachusetts, she earned a Master’s in Education as a reading specialist, and took her first teaching job in Malden. In 1981, when teacher layoffs occurred, Mary Jane went back to her first career, and worked at the blood bank at Massachusetts General Hospital, until she was hired as a Language Arts teacher at Marblehead Middle School. Mary Jane loved teaching 6th grade English, but in the final years of her teaching career, decided to become a 7th grade science teacher. She taught human anatomy and botany until her retirement in June of 2000. Mary Jane’s mind was truly transdisciplinary – it knew no boundaries. She was literally interested in everything, and she shared this knowledge generously, without ego, with everyone who knew her.

Mary Jane’s life was defined by two great love stories. In 1962, she married Carl Eck. They were married 27 years, until his early death in 1989. Together they loved to talk about their Chicago courtship, with long walks by day along Lake Michigan and smokey jazz clubs by night, where they got to hear all of the greats, including Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk. The Augustana years, when Carl served as the college’s comptroller, saw the birth of Lisa (1966) and John (1968) who were raised as “campus brats,” first at Augustana, then Washington University in St. Louis (where Carl attended law school), Knox College (the Galesburg, Illinois years), and finally, Salem State College, which brought the family to Massachusetts in 1977, to join Carl’s brother, Dale, and eventually his parents, Erick and Kerstine Eck. The Marblehead years brought a new addition to the family: a Swedish exchange student, Katarina Moritz, who became a second daughter to Mary Jane, and further encouraged her love of Swedish culture. There were also epic summer road trips that brought Mike’s family – Mary Jane’s three nephews John, Danny, and Patrick – from small town Illinois to Marblehead. This beautiful chapter of her life changed when she was widowed at age 49. It would be 10 long years until she met Richard Young, her second great love.

Mary Jane experienced great losses in her life, but her life never got smaller because of it; somehow, it always got larger. At the turn of the new millennium, she married Dick (Richard Young) and embarked on a life in Newton, Massachusetts that would entail 19 happy years of marriage and an active retirement. These were expansive years. Her family grew to include Dick’s daughters Liz, Becky, and Martha Young, and Dick’s grandchildren Sarah, Andrew, Rob, and Hillary. Mary Jane helped raise her grandchildren, Isaac and Fiona, from age 10 months through the elementary school years, all the way to their college graduations. She made sure their childhood was filled with museum visits, art camps, puppet shows, cooking lessons, and healthy snacks.  Mary Jane and Dick had a bridge group, a travel group, multiple books groups, of course, and their devoted church community at the Lutheran Church of the Newtons, where their friend Anita Dana served as their unofficial matchmaker. Yes, theirs was a Lutheran love story!

Mary Jane and Dick traveled extensively to places as far flung as Tuscany and Turkey, Iceland and Provence, the Czech Republic and Sweden, as well as to visit family in California, Texas, Florida, and Illinois. Over the course of forty years, her son-in-law David Ripp’s family, in Chicago and Boston, welcomed Mary Jane as a valued member of their family. The annual St. Stephen’s Day caroling and wassail tradition, or “wren,” was a holiday highlight for her, where she felt herself in the fold of a loving extended family. Back in Boston, Dick and Mary Jane took full advantage of the senior citizen discount on the T, and put that money towards season tickets for the Boston Symphony, the Huntington Theater, and the Lyric Opera, which they attended with a loyal group of friends. As a long-term member of the Daughters of Abraham – a group of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women interested in reading texts that engage both their shared tradition and explore theological and cultural differences, Mary Jane traveled to Andalusia, Spain and later to Israel and Palestine where the “daughters” met with women’s groups serious about the project of peace. Back in Newton, Mary Jane volunteered for Kids for Peace, a summer camp hosting Israeli and Palestinian youth. Mary Jane’s history of activism began in the 1960’s and lasted until the end of her life.

After spending the pandemic years living at the Willows in Westborough, Mary Jane moved to Natick, in 2023, to live at what is now the Residence at Natick South. Proximity to family made this final chapter of her life poignant, as did the new friends she made in just two short years at the Residence. Before her chronic conditions became acute, she attended everything from concerts and field trips to potlucks at friends’ houses and church on Sunday at Christ Lutheran Church in Natick, where she was always the last to leave coffee hour. In 2025, she faced over a dozen hospitalizations with courage and resilience, and what were, eventually, weekly trips to the blood cancer center at Massachusetts General Hospital. She died at home, surrounded by family, which is exactly what she had wished for.

Mary Jane is survived by her son, John Eck, her daughter Lisa Eck, son-in-law David Ripp, grandchildren Isaac and Fiona Ripp, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Dale and Cathy Eck, nephews John, Daniel and Patrick Postlewait, and step-daughters Elizabeth, Rebecca, and Martha Young.

Visitation from the John Everett & Sons Funeral Home, 4 Park St., NATICK COMMON, on Friday, December 5, 2025, from 4:00 pm through 8:00 pm. A Funeral Service will be held at the Christ Lutheran Church, 113 Union Street, Natick, on Saturday, December 6, 2025, at 11:00 am. There will be a light luncheon to follow, with an open mic opportunity for storytelling. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend. Internment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Mary Jane's memory to the following charities:

Lutheran Social Services of New England Inc.: Donate | Lutheran Social Services of New England Inc.

Lutheran World Relief: Donate | Lutheran World Relief

For online guestbook and directions, please visit: www.everettfuneral.com

To View the Livestream of the funeral service, please click this link: LiveStream | Funeral Service of Mary Jane Young

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