Mary Lee Laudenslager Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Mary Lee Byerly Laudenslager joined her fellow angels in heaven on August 8, 2015. She blessed our lives for 67 years, 7 months, and 26 days. Mary’s parents were Mary Catherine Shiffer and Lee Elias Byerly. Mary and her parents lived in Pillow, PA. Since marrying Joseph Lee Laudenslager on November 29, 1969, she and Joe have been residents and well-known community members of Gratz, PA. Mary Lee and Joe are the parents of: daughter Audra Laudenslager Eyster, married to Troy Eyster, who are parents of granddaughters Lydia and Alaina Eyster; son Brian Laudenslager, father to first grandchild Brock Laudenslager, married to Tanya Hepler, and are parents of grandchildren Elise, Olivia, and Bryce Laudenslager; and Brock is the father of great-grandson Dylan Laudenslager. Mary Lee has many cousins on both parents’ sides. Mary Lee was blessed to grow up in a small town, surrounded by family and friends who were so helpful when her mother passed away at the age of 37. Her surrogate mother, Lottie “Mammy” Shiffer, who made the hamburg barbecue for the Pillow Block Party, gave her unfailing love. Mary Lee was a beautiful blond majorette for Upper Dauphin High School, from which she graduated in 1965. While Joe served our country in Viet Nam, Mary Lee pursued business training at the Thompson Business Institute in Harrisburg, PA. After working in State College she returned home in a few years and completed training at the Empire Beauty School. Mary also served as a lifetime member of the Gratz Area Ambulance as a dispatcher. Her expanded family, the Laudenslager's and Shiffer's, also supported Mary Lee when her father passed away at age 55. This extended family circle of kindness and love shaped Mary’s own willingness to be helpful and supportive of anyone she knew that needed a hand. As a young woman, Mary Lee balanced raising two very active children, a full-time career as a beautician, and the responsibilities of wife and homemaker. But she always had time to help a friend and visit with family. She was the friendly, listening ear of a local hairdresser - forming lifetime relationships along the way, even travelling to Millersburg to cheer up nursing home residents by doing their hair. She was always a hit at a family reunion, bringing home-cooked specialties and, as always, there to help in any way she could. Mary Lee unselfishly loved her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchild, aunts, uncles, and cousins; no sacrifice was too great. Mary Lee has been a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church, initially at Zion Stone Valley Lutheran Church, but since moving to Gratz, of the Simeon United Lutheran Church. Her foundation in faith was formed at an early age and has not only served Mary Lee throughout life’s trials, but has also shaped her children’s spirituality and inspired so many others. Mary Lee was a living testament to the peace and tranquility that results from Christian devotion. Mary Lee’s faith, family, and friendships are her salient accomplishments - and they are the legacy that she leaves to us. The last sixteen years of her life were shaped, in large part, by coping with cancer. With each reoccurrence, she inspired others like her, caregivers, physicians, and hundreds of others with her positive outlook, her thankfulness for all things, and her silent yet steel-like strength and resolve. Mary Lee is truly an Angel who walked among us and we will surely see her again in Heaven. Join us in celebrating Mary Lee’s life in her chosen style on Saturday, August 15 at 11:00am at Simeon United Lutheran Church, Gratz, PA. Visitation will be held from 10-11:00am also from the Church. Mary Lee always loved flowers, and her wish is that flowers sent for the ceremony be taken home by the senders - as a remembrance of her. In lieu of flowers, if you wish, please donate to Simeon United Lutheran Church.

Mary Lee Laudenslager

December 13, 1947 - August 8, 2015