Mary Eleanor Tanner passed away May 11. She was born in Long Beach, on Sept. 5, 1928, and married on Sept. 5, 1948.

As a child, she learned to ride horses, shoot firearms, and studied engineering in college. During World War II, she started flying in the Civil Air Patrol at age 14 with the goal of flying fighter aircraft to the war zones, but the war ended before she turned 18. She was a sergeant in their CAP championship drill team. After raising three children, she returned to college and became a registered nurse in 1974, retiring in 1986 after nine years as night supervisor at Bellwood General Hospital. Then she served as an active volunteer in the Emergency Services Office of the South Gate Police Department.

She was a Cub Scout den leader in the Boy Scouts, neighborhood chairman for the Girl Scouts, and a member of the Hollydale American Legion Auxiliary. For 30 years she served as a registered nurse for the American Red Cross in disaster areas across the country, including Hawaii. She started square dancing in 1962 and within a year so was her whole family. Also a round dancer, she was the “Sunshine Lady” and has served on the board of directors of the Bootjack Stompers Club. Being an avid reader, she donated many books as a member of the Friends of the Mariposa Library and was a life member of the Mariposa Golden Agers.

She was preceded in death by parents, Timothy Howard and Eva Frances O’Connell, grandmother Julia Mitchell; and brother, Thomas Michael O’Connell. She leaves behind husband, Stuart Tanner; son Thomas Michael Tanner and his wife Janet; daughters, Susan Souza and husband Richard and Kathleen Rumfelt and husband Donald; granddaughters, Amy McKenzie and husband Lenny, Sharon Calderon and husband Lee, Melanie Meehan, Julia Tanner, and Mary Rumfelt with Jay Fraker; grandsons, Tim Rumfelt and wife Lynn and Paul Rumfelt and wife Amanda; seven great-grandchildren, and three brothers-in-law and their families.

Always cooperative and ready to help others, she will surely be missed by many. A Memorial service is being planned for Saturday, June 19 at 1 p.m. at the Bootjack Stompers hall.