Mary Anne Trickle, 82, passed away on Saturday, September 2 at the Brookdale Kirwin facility in Salina, Kansas. Mary Anne was born on May 24, 1941 in Hays, Kansas. She was the daughter of John Turner and Christine (Berger) Griffith of Hill City, Kansas.
Mary Anne spent the years of her childhood and youth in Hill City and graduated from elementary school and high school there. She graduated from Kansas State University in 1963 with a Bachelors Degree in Home Economics. She also received a Masters Degree from Kansas State in Curriculum and Instruction in 1976.
Mary Anne began a distinguished career in teaching in the autumn of 1963. She taught family and Consumer Sciences for thirty seven years in Salina Public Schools. Her first seven years were as an instructor at Salina South Junior High School, but when Salina High School South began in 1970-71 , she was chosen to teach Family and Consumer Sciences for the new high school. She was a department chairperson for thirty years until her retirement in 2000.
Mary Anne served the profession in many different roles. She was first and foremost an outstanding classroom teacher, and she was also an advocate for teachers and schools and most of all for students. She was president of NEA Salina and a delegate to many State Representative Assemblies in Topeka. In 1990 she was elected to be one of two delegates from Kansas to the National Education Association Board of Directors in Washington, D.C.. She spent many days and nights in our nation’s capitol. She served six years equaling two terms.
After her retirement from classroom teaching she ran for the Salina Board of Education and was the number one vote getter in the election of 2001. She served four terms totaling sixteen years on the board. Also, during this time she was a regional vice-president of the Kansas Association of School Boards.
Mary Anne had a great career as an educator and received many honors. In 1989 she was selected as a Kansas Master Teacher by Emporia State University. In 2006 she was inducted as a member of the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame in Dodge City. In 2018 she received the Distinguished Service Alumni Award from the Kansas State College of Human Ecology at K.S.U..
On July 30, 1966 Mary Anne and Kenneth Trickle, Jr. were united in marriage in the United Methodist Church of Hill City, Kansas. They enjoyed fifty-seven years together. Those years were highlighted by many wonderful experiences. There was a trip to Europe in 1981, and most of all there were many vacations in Estes Park, Colorado.
Mary Anne was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church. She loved her church and the people of Trinity. She was a woman of faith and was highly respected and admired. She had charm and grace and most of all perhaps she was a person of compassion for all people.
She is survived by her husband Ken of the home, a sister Ruth Wintsch and her husband Fred at Wallingford, Connecticut, a sister –in-law Shirley Bailey Gibbs of Republican City, Nebraska; a sister –in-law Barbara Trickle of Basehor, Kansas; a cousin Ed Berger and his wife Carol of Hutchinson, Kansas; a cousin Rod Berger and his wife Judy of Halstead, Kansas; a cousin Kathy Poer and her husband Leroy Poer of Arlington, Texas; a nephew Steve Cebik of New Haven, Connecticut and a niece Sarah Walters of Cambridge, England.
A memorial service will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church, Salina, on Saturday, September 16 at 2 p.m. Memorials are suggested to Trinity United Methodist Church, Chapman United Methodist Church, the Salina Education Foundation, or Interim Health Care and Hospice of Salina. For more information or to leave condolences go to www.ryanmortuary.com