Mary Jane Barnes McDermott Obituary (1948 - 2020)

Our beloved mom, granny, sister, aunt and friend, Mary Jane Barnes McDermott, was reunited with her cherished mother and a menagerie of favorite pets on Wednesday, September 16, 2020. She was born in Lewistown, Montana on July 10, 1948 to Frances Ora Whitburn and Ray Arthur Barnes, but moved to Utah as a young girl. It was in Utah that she made lifelong friendships that have since endured the test of time and distance. These friends lovingly knew her as Janie. After losing her own mother at a young age, Janie was welcomed into the family of her best friend Ginger Flemming Derlet. Ginger and Janie shared many road trips and lively conversations over the years. Oh, the discussions that they had about the current state of U.S. Politics! Mary met and married John McDermott in May 1970 and during this marriage, they had two daughters, Jennifer and Holly, before later divorcing. Mary also had a special place in her heart for Dave Holdaway for being her own personal handyman. The light and joy of Mary’s life were her five grandchildren: Zackry (Haylee) Holdaway, Konnor (Carolann) Holdaway, Alexa (Leighton) Maycock, Caitlynne Holdaway and Emilee Miller. She was over the moon to become a great granny to Koe Holdaway in 2018 and was eagerly anticipating the two new grandbabies arriving in March 2021. Mary was fiercely proud of the years she spent working at the Utah National Guard before retiring after more than 20 years of service. After retiring, she worked and volunteered at the Natural History Museum of Utah. She loved taking her grandkids, their cousins and their friends on museum tours. To this day, she still loves to talk about both the Guard and dinosaurs! She made many friends in her later years and loved her neighbors at “The Park”. A heartfelt thank you to her next-door neighbors, Boris and Galina, for their special friendship. She had also recently made new friends at the senior community center and loved sharing stories of their collective life experiences. Mary was insistent about not having a memorial service and was adamant that we hold a party in her honor instead! A celebration of life will be held for friends and family on Saturday, September 26, 2020 from 12:30 until 2:30 PM at Taylorsville Park Pavilion located at 4800 S. Redwood Road. A separate virtual celebration of life for distantly-located loved ones will be held via Zoom meeting at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please donate in her memory to the Natural History Museum of Utah at https://nhmu.utah.edu/give. We love you Granny and will miss you forever and always.