Mary Ella (Edwards) Hudson
Marriages
Cletus "Farmer" Tippings
Nick Hudson - 1964
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 5B - December 3, 2010
â– Mary Ella Tipping Hudson,
89, Unaweep Canyon, died
Dec. 2, 2010, at Mesa Manor Care
Center.
Services will be at 10 a.m.
Tuesday at Callahan-Edfast
Mortuary.
Survivors include two sons,
Clayton Tipping and Ronald
Tipping, both of Grand Junction;
one stepson, Mark Hudson
of Loma; one daughter, Anita
Sue Curry of Texas; one brother,
Darrell Edwards of California;
one sister, Ruth MacPherson of
California; 11 grandchildren; 17
great-grandchildren; and one
great-great-grandchild.
Memorial contributions to
the Glade Park Fire Department,
P.O. Box 23119, Glade Park
81523.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 3C - December 5, 2010
Mary Ella Edwards was born
April 8, 1921, in Brush, Colorado
to Darrell and Frances Edwards.
Shortly after her parents separated
in the early 1920's, her
younger sister Josephine died and
Mary Ella was raised hardscrabble,
moving wherever her
mother could find work. She lived
for a short while in Kansas City
and in towns now forgotten. She
and her mother settled near relatives
in Grand Junction in the
1930's, where they survived the
great depression living in tar paper
shacks. She was near and
close to her many cousins in the
Weatherford family, some of
whom she vigorously protected.
Her mother remarried and Mary
Ella was blessed with a new sister
Ruth, and a new brother
Charles. She protected them with
the same intensity she had exerted for her cousins. During a period
of tribulation arising from her mother’s second marriage, she grew
even stronger and defiant of her stepfather. For her welfare, her
mother sent her to live in Oakland, California with her father and his
new family. There she experienced domestic stability and there she
swiftly acquired poise and social grace from her father and stepmother
Lillian. She was able to attend high school for a time but returned
to her mother in Grand Junction, who had separated from her
husband and was caring alone for two young children and needed
her assistance. Mary Ella returned as an adult with firm ideas of
what was right and proper and a determination to bring that knowledge
to her family. She was beautiful and confident. She had become
conscientious regarding etiquette, decorum, dress and dignity.
She had become a lady and proceeded to make favorable impressions
that brought her opportunity and love. Almost everyone began
to call her “Maryâ€.
She found a job caring for an elderly couple. Later, she began
working as a waitress at Santy’s Restaurant. She was a hard worker,
efficient, friendly and popular. She took a job as a waitress at the La
Court Hotel, the elite spot in Grand Junction in the 1950's, and she
soon became their hostess and was in charge of food service and
catering for many years. She made less money than by waiting
tables, but she liked the job because she got to dress up; because she
was in charge; and because she really enjoyed organizing and dealing
with people. She became well known and admired by professionals
and business people. Later, she opened her own restaurant,
the “Big Chefâ€. And, before retiring after a long, but interrupted, career
in food service, she also worked as a hostess at the Far East.
After returning from California, she fell in love with her best friend
Virginia Tipping’s brother Cletus “Farmerâ€. They were married in
Leadville and soon had two children, Clayton and Ronald. Her work
career was interrupted to care for her boys and because Farmer did
seasonal work, shearing sheep in Wyoming, which required travel.
Mary and the boys went with him in an old Plymouth pickup. They
all loved and shared a nomadic life several months each year. They
lived in a tent, watched the rain run through it and the wind flutter
and shake it. They sang “You Are My Sunshine†and other songs as
they traveled from sheep station to sheep station. Farmer had to
patch inner tubes and pump air into their worn out tires (impossible
to replace during the war) at least every hundred miles. Their
migrant life went on until the boys had to go to school and until
Farmer’s rheumatic heart, which had kept him out of the service,
made it impossible for him to do heavy manual labor. He died of a
heart attack in 1956 at the age of 40, and Mary Ella was a widow at
age 34. She worked hard and supported her boys until they left home
after high school.
Mary met Nick Hudson, who frequented the Big Chef, and married
him in 1964. She became a loving mother to his daughter Sue and
his son Mark for the rest of her life. She and Nick sold the Big Chef
and moved to Page, Arizona for seven years to enhance his
retirement. When Nick retired, they returned home, bought and lived
on 80 acres on Glade Park and raised horses. Mary drove up and
down the mountain to work. Nick died in 1987 and Mary was
widowed again at age 66. She moved to a ranch in Unaweep
Canyon, where she spent the rest of her life doing what she loved
best: growing flowers, raising cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys and
guineas, and watching the wild life. At age 75, she and a bobcat
surprised and scared each other in her chicken house, where it had
killed and stacked in a corner 20 or 30 of her laying hens. The
bobcat caught its head in a woven wire fence trying to streak past
her to escape. She kicked the snared bobcat so many times that both
her feet were purple for weeks. At her ranch home, she provided
refuge and a home for many a weary or needy relative for many
weeks and sometimes months and even years during their hard
times. She refused to move to town though begged to do so by her
sons. She laughed when they kidded her that she did not consider
their possible embarrassment and the disgrace they would suffer if
she should fall and not be able to get up and freeze to death. She left
the ranch in 2010, just a few months before she died, only when her
sons dragged her away because of her failing health. She was tough,
loving, protective and retained her sense of humor to the very end.
She died December 2, 2010 on her first grandson’s 50th birthday.
She will be sorely missed.
She is survived by her sons, Clayton Tipping (Linda), Ronald
Tipping (Marie), and Mark Hudson (Linda); daughter, Sue Currey
(Austin, Texas); brother, Darrell B. Edwards Jr. (Monterey,
California); sister, Ruth MacPherson (Pasadena, California); 14
grandchildren, Denise Amrie (David), Todd Tipping, Suzanne
Kester (John), Craig Tipping (Shelly), Cathy Tipping, Justin
Hudson, Kjersti Hudson, Josh Hudson (Kira), Dusty Currey, Sean
Currey, Heather Currey, Tonia Bunce (Dan), Amy Pickard, and
Laura Pickard; 20 great grandchildren and one great great grandson.
She was preceded in death by a grandson, Thomas Kent Tipping; a
brother, Charles W. Fix and sisters, Josephine Edwards and Betty
Jane Edwards.
A Memorial service is 10:00 a.m. Tuesday December 7th at
Callahan-Edfast.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Glade Park Volunteer Fire Department.
Grand Junction Free Press page 15 - December 10, 2010
