Mary L. App died peacefully on Wednesday, August 12 during a brief stay at a local hospital.

Mary was the daughter of Harry Hitchcock, a broom maker, and the former Mayme Brett, homemaker and stay-at-home bookkeeper for their Butte, Montana broom shop.

Mary loved her childhood in Butte and enjoyed recalling the escapades of her three Irish aunts and other memorable characters in that rough-and-tumble mining town once known as “the richest hill on earth.”

After graduating high school at Butte Central in 1943, she moved to Spokane, Washington with several girlfriends for college and nursing degrees. She received her R.N. degree at Sacred Heart School of Nursing in 1947. In 1975 Mary was accepted into the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Project at the University of Washington School of Nursing. She graduated in 1976.

Mary married Harry App in 1948. She and Harry started their family in Spokane. In the next 12 years, the family lived in Oregon, Washington, California then moved to Olympia, Washington in 1963.

She and Harry retired to La Conner in 1984. Mary marveled that most of her years were spent in the beautiful Skagit Valley. Mary was preceded in death by her husband Harry, her daughter Ann, both her brothers Tom and Bill and her only sister Ann Jane.

She is survived by her son Bill, her son Mark and daughter-in-law Linda, and sons George and Richard. She also leaves her daughters Mary StOnge, Jan App and Alice App and Scott, and her granddaughters Shell StOnge, Chair StOnge and Caroline App.

Mary will be greatly missed by her family and those who knew her. At Mary’s request, no services will be held. Memorials may be sent to charities of choice.