Mary Catherine Faulkner, a former Detroit Public Schools educator, nationally competitive bridge player, world traveler and a large contributor to charitable causes who religiously pinched pennies, died February 10, 2008. She was 86.
Born May 14, 1921 in Garrand County, Kentucky to William Rand and Ophelia Faulkner, Mary Faulkner might not have had a choice when it came to career plans. Her mother, Ophelia, completed her public school education at Garfield in 1914 and returned to Kentucky to teach at Point Leavell.
Similarly, her sister Elizabeth earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education at Kentucky State College, and worked for more than two decades with the Detroit Board of Education and the Cincinnati Public Schools.
Though she had no children, she gave of herself to countless children.
Mary, after graduation from Morton High School in Richmond, Ind., went on to earn a bachelor’s Degree in Home Economics from Kentucky State University. In 1952, a teaching job at Logan Elementary brought her to Detroit, Michigan, and she taught there as well as at Hutchinson, Southwestern and Cody schools until 1964. She then worked as a counselor at Knudsen Elementary, Southwestern, Denby and Northwestern High schools. She spent most of her education career in Detroit, but spent two years teaching in Japan before retiring as a department head at Northwestern in 1983.
Throughout her life, Mary kept a social calendar that most would envy, even though she wrote in a 1983 letter that, “I’ll never be able to complete all the traveling and other activities that I’ve neglected during my working years, but I’ll still enjoy working at it.”
So before and after retirement, Mary managed to travel to Rome, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong and Toronto, to name a few destinations. Her competitive and avid Bridge play also found her traveling the country for American Bridge Association contests, where she racked up national victories.
Maureen Stapleton, who was like a daughter to her beloved Aunt Mary, tried to delicately characterize her finance habits.
“How can I say this: She could use an egg four times.”
Such cautionary ways, however, allowed Mary to amass a sizeable amount of money over the years, which she quietly and liberally donated to a host of causes. That includes thousands and thousands of dollars that were provided to charities such as the United Way, and in death, more than $1 million that will be provided to the United Negro College Fund, Ebenezer AME Church in Detroit and to Kentucky State University.
A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the American Association of Retired Persons and a devout member of her church, Mary was also committed to the environment and loved to read and write.
“She was very caring,”Maureen said, “and very dedicated to her family and friends.”
She was preceded in death by her parents, William (1978), her mother Ophelia (1976) and her sister Elizabeth (1995).
The Michigan Citizen
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