Mary Bacon was born in Craig, Nebraska. She moved to Decatur when she was five. Her first school year was at Bertha, and she graduated from high school in 1951 in Decatur. She has lived in Lyons since 1980. When she moved to Lyons, she and her husband started buying trailer houses for their children. Then they got tired of that and moved off the farm and bought a house in Lyons. They gave the farmhouse to the kids.

When Mary was younger she wanted to be an airline stewardess because she loved to fly and travel. Some of her best memories were traveling in the army because she loved meeting people. The moment that has impacted Mary and her husband’s life was Gerald being part of the atomic bomb.

One of Mary’s favorite events was traveling with her husband Gerald. They went to Yuma, Arizona to visit Gerald’s family every year. The two of them even went to Hawaii and England. During her trip to England they were surprised to share the flight with the priest from Tekamah. She stated that almost every trip she takes, she knows someone on it.

Mary’s favorite hobbies are baking, piano lessons, crossword puzzles, and gardening. She enjoys doing crossword puzzles because it keeps her mind working. She said that doing crossword puzzles is an expensive hobby because she gets the Omaha World-Herald every day just to do the crossword.

Mary said that the community has changed quite a bit since she moved here. She acknowledged there are fewer kids and more elderly people. Mary also reminisced about the community losing stores. Back in the 50’s, Lyons had three stores, a clothing store, and many more. Mary said to improve our community we need to get the nursing home open because we have so many elderly people that don’t want to leave. Mary also said that the Branding Iron needs to open back up again so the town has another restaurant.

Mary used to give piano lessons. I asked her how many people she has taught to play the piano she said “several hundred.” The best memory she had was a group of girls that continued to take lessons and play the piano all through high school. She would tell all of her students before they started that you can play music forever but only sports for a few years because she would always lose people once they started high school. Mary did say she would give lessons to anyone if they asked but as of now she teaches only her grandchildren.

Mary’s greatest success in life is having her two sons and one daughter. Mary said that she would not change anything with her life because it is very satisfying. Her advice to a young person these days is to get out and do something and not just sit in the house and look at your phone or watch television. Through all this, Mary has had a very fascinating life.