Mary Hiszem Anderson was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1939, the same year Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz came out in vibrant Technicolor.

She was proud of her Hungarian heritage and spoke Hungarian. The Hiszem family moved to California from Ohio in 1947. In 1957, Mary attended Woodbury College where she studied journalism and wrote about fashion trends for the school newspaper. She worked as a fashion model to help with tuition.

In 1959 she met and married George Thomas Anderson and they had three children. Mary had a beautiful voice and loved to sing opera. She was a soprano at St. Irenaus Catholic Church in Cypress, California, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lincoln, California, and Grace Episcopal, Bainbridge Island, Washington.

She loved family, good food, caring for animals and spent many hours working in her rose and vegetable gardens.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Anna Marie, and her husband, George. She is survived by her daughter, Susan Anderson Bennett, and grandson Eli Bennett of Bainbridge Island; and Thomas M. Anderson, and grandsons Hunter and Chase Anderson of Frisco, Texas.

Services will be at 3 p.m. Friday, July 29 at Grace Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island. Please make memorial contributions to Metavivor.org, the Arthritis Foundation, or Grace Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island. Please sign the online Guest Book at www.cookfamilyfuneralhome.com.