Mary Anna Ullrich, an amazingly strong woman with a loving heart, passed away on Saturday, April 18, 2020 in Lawrence, Kansas.
She grew up on a farm just east of Goodland, Kansas with her brothers Bill, Norman, and sister Ada in the time of the Dust Bowl and the Depression. When she was a small child, her family loaded up in the Model T and drove on dirt highways and roads from Goodland to Canada to visit relatives. What an endeavor that must have been.
Mary Anna had the most beautiful handwriting and when she was in grade school, her penmanship was used by the high school to show students what good writing skills could be attained by a dedicated mind. She learned to fly an airplane at the Goodland airport. That is how she met Robert Ullrich and they married on June 2nd, 1945. Mary Anna brought into the world and raised seven children on a farm southwest of Colby, Kansas. She worked hard to provide for her family and protected her children without smothering them.
Mary Anna did everything including repairing equipment, gardening, sewing clothes, milking the cows, raising chickens and all other tasks too numerous to list. She cared deeply for all the farm animals, enjoyed hobbies such as photography, arranging floral decorations, and other artistic projects. One of Mary Anna’s greatest qualities was her perseverance. She pressed on when the mountains seemed so high and impossible to cross over. As a grandmother, she was patient, kind, and loving. She always had food on the table for snacking and looked forward to cooking her family’s next meal. She was always the happiest when her family was together.
Mary Anna was preceded in death by her husband, Robert, her parents, Henry and Rose Sandy, her siblings, Ada Taylor and Bill Sandy, and nephew, Buddy Thorpe.
She is survived by her brother Norman Sandy, her children and their spouses: Joyce and Dick Herrerias, Eileen Ullrich, Sandy and Angelyn Ullrich, Tom Ullrich, Arnella and Mike McNichols, Arnold and Pamela Ullrich, Robin and Brian Brown. She is also survived by her nieces Susan, Mary Jane, Lorna, Lisa, and nephew Brian, along with eleven grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.
Private family graveside services will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2020 at the Goodland Cemetery, Goodland, KS.
Online condolences for the family may be left at www.koonsrussellfuneralhome.com.
Funeral services have been entrusted to Koons-Russell Funeral Home in Goodland.