MaryAnn Bouley

MaryAnn Bouley was born at home on her family’s farm in Hamel, the middle child and only girl in a family of five. She attended Saints Peter & Paul Catholic School through eighth grade, then went to Mound High School for grades 9-11 and graduated from Orono High School in its inaugural class of 1952. She married Russel Bouley of Hamel on October 16, 1954.
When they were first married, Russ and MaryAnn lived above the hardware store in Hamel, next to the house where he grew up. After their three children were born, they built a home in Hamel, which MaryAnn filled with love, good food, and Christmas decorations.
Over the years, MaryAnn and Russ became the center of a large and loving family, which MaryAnn gathered together most weeks for dinners she called her Sunday night soirees. At the soirees, she would cook a full meal for anyone who wanted to come, both friends and family. Sometimes five people came, or sometimes twenty-five, and she always had food for us all.
MaryAnn always loved gathering people together, but most of all she loved Christmas. She was famous for hanging a stocking for Santa to fill for every member of her immediate family, even after the wall was full and the stockings spread to a second row. This year, MaryAnn had thirty-six stockings, all hand-stitched with names. She welcomed everyone and had a real talent for making all of us feel special.
MaryAnn and Russ were devoted members of the Church of St. Anne from the time of their marriage. She served for many years on the Board of Trustees and loved singing in the church choir. MaryAnn also made many friends during the eighteen years she served as the health aide at Orono High School, from which she retired in 1995, and was a long-serving President of the American Legion Auxiliary. Everywhere MaryAnn went, she ran into people she knew.
In 1994, Russ and MaryAnn bought a little place in Surprise, Arizona, in a community called Happy Trails. They went down to the “Surprise Package” every winter and enjoyed many visitors from home and good friends they made in Arizona. MaryAnn also went on many trips up the North Shore with friends and family, and loved to go “bumming” around looking for trinkets and treasures for the people she cared about.
Everywhere she went, MaryAnn gathered a community around her. She had a kind word to say about everyone and always kept her sense of humor. She is greatly loved and will always be in our hearts.

“When the good Lord comes a knockin’, I’m a ready!” - MaryAnn Bouley

Interment St. Anne's Cemetery.

Friday, September 15, 2017 04:00 PM - 08:00 PM

Gearty-Delmore Plymouth Chapel 15800 37th Avenue North Plymouth, MN 55446

Saturday, September 16, 2017 10:00 AM

The Church of St. Anne 200 Hamel Road, Hamel, MN 55340

Interment St. Anne's Cemetery.