Mary Prather

MARY AGNES [O’TOOLE] PRATHER

January 22, 1944 – September 30, 2019

Our dear mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend left us to join her husband Bobby. Mary was born to Edward O’Toole and Eileen [deBlaquiere] O’Toole on January 22, 1944 in the old St. Mary’s Hospital.

Her early life came with obstacles.  Born with club feet she learned to walk with metal braces after the surgery to correct them.  Then when she was 4 she contracted a case of polio affecting her left lung and face.  It’s no wonder Mary grew up to take care of everybody else.  It was the spirit of her life with the care she received from birth.

Raised with her sister primarily on the Redlands at her grandmother’s peach farm, Mary graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1962 and attended one year at Mesa College but decided to train as a Nurse’s Aide at St. Mary’s Hospital where she worked for ten years and cherished her nursing family and patients.

Mary married Bobby Prather in 1969.  With the exception of living briefly in San Diego, the couple returned to DeBeque and the Prather ranch where they sidelined the ranching with a hunting guide operation that flourished throughout the early 1970’s.  After Bobby took a job with Occidental Petroleum during the oil shale boom, the family moved to Grand Junction in 1977.

Mary loved the cowboy life on the Roan Creek ranch and all things western.  She wrote the Prather family history that ended up morphing into a DeBeque history and she belonged to the Mesa County Historical Society.  She also ran a daycare for 26 years and was famous for taking in stray cats and kids.

Mary is survived by son Jason (Jennifer) Prather, their children Kaitlyn, Karen and Hunter, daughter Sarah Richmond, her children Kainan and Kalisee, and her sister Eileen O’Toole.  Also Bobby’s daughter Lori (Greg) Latham and her children Danielle, Jesse and Blake and former son-in-law Stu (Dora) McKlasky.  Also many much loved cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends including lifelong best friends Marie, Peggy and Evalee.

Mary requested no services except at the Veterans Cemetery to join Bobby on October 18th at 1:00 P.M. and a pot luck life celebration from 2:00—5:00 P.M. at the VFW at 1404 Ute Ave.  Donations to Hopewest 3090 N. 12th St. or Catholic Outreach 245 S. 1st. St.