Mary Ann Bertels of Nortonville, Kansas passed peacefully and with grace into eternal life Friday, December 31, 2021, at the Vineyard House in Overland Park KS, at the age of 89.

Mass of Christian burial will be Saturday, January 8, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Church in Nortonville, KS. Interment will follow in St. Joseph’s Cemetery. A parish rosary will be on Friday, January 7, at 6:00 p.m. with visitation to follow until 8:00 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Church in Nortonville. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to St. Joseph Catholic Church and Cemetery or Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care (kchospice.org) and sent in care of the Becker-Dyer-Stanton & O'Trimble Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. Words of comfort for the family may be left at ww.beckerdyer.com.

Mary Ann Bertels (Shannon) was born on May 22, 1932, in Searcy, Arkansas, the daughter of Harvey E. and Gladys H. (Gard) Shannon. Mom never knew her father Harvey, who passed away on December 18th, 1973 and was raised by her step-father Everette Duke who passed away in 1958 before most of us really knew him. He was Grandpa Duke to us but to her he was “Daddy”. After his passing we were blessed to have as the only grandfather we knew, John W. Box, affectionately known as Johnny who passed away August 25,1987 only four months before her mother Gladys (our Granny) passed away on January 30,1988.

Mary Ann married Marvin F. Bertels on her birthday, May 22,1950 in a double ring ceremony with Marvin’s sister Mary (Bertels) and Herb Frederick. They celebrated 65 years of marriage in 2015. Marvin preceded her in death when he passed away on September 4, 2015.

Mary Ann was active in parish life serving on the Altar Society. She worked numerous jobs over the years including babysitting, check out at the IGA, waiting tables at Noll’s Cafe and on the Hill Cafe in Nortonville. Mary Ann served as the activity director at two local nursing homes in Oskaloosa and Nortonville. Her last job was serving school lunches at St. Joseph grade school. She loved doing cross word and board puzzles, so much so that she had a tabletop built just for her puzzles by her son-in-law Dennis. She was a big fan of KU basketball and the KC Chiefs. She always watched the close games while Dad paced in the other room. She was feisty, as many from the Vineyard House will attest. Even with her memory loss over the last few years she always kept her wit, but it was her humility and self-deprecating wonder on how well we all turned out that made her most endearing. And like Dad, her most important achievements were in relation to her family as wife, mom, grandma and great grandma.

Mary Ann is survived by her half-brother Wayne (Joy) Shannon (St. Louis, MO); a sister-in-law Rita Frederick (Peoria, AZ) and her first cousin and the only sister she knew growing up Beverly (Jim) Cole (Wichita, KS). Her eight children; five daughters, Dianne (Dennis) Call (Great Bend, KS), Margaret (Mark Wladika) Bertels (Berkeley, CA), Teresa (Colin) Albers (Nebraska City, NE), Francie (Mark) Sittenauer (Goodyear, AZ) and Joanie (Ken) Baxter (Eureka, IL); Three sons, Jim (Kathleen) Bertels (Manhattan, KS), Ed (Kelly) Bertels (Edmond, OK) and Chris (Chris) Bertels (Topeka, KS). She leaves a future generation of 15 grandchildren and 33 great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her half-brother Gary Shannon, and two great grandchildren (Susanna and Benjamin) who have been waiting in heaven for her.

“You have fought the good fight, You have finished the race, You have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for you the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to you on this Day”