Mary 'Bernie' Trainor

Mary Bernadette Catherine Trainor of St. Ignace, known as "Bernie," worked at Peggy's Fudge Shop, the Indian Village, Sears Catalog Store, and made totem poles for Calvin Tamlyn, and was a former Sault Ste. Marie, Saginaw, and Detroit resident. She worked at the Ford Motor Company River Rouge Plant War Bond Division in Dearborn from October 1942 to February 1946.

Mrs. Trainor died early Friday morning, March 7, 2008, at the Hospice House in Cheboygan at the age of 84.

With Mary Nelson and Guy Bilbie, Mrs. Trainor started the St. Ignace Women's Bowling Association and bowling leagues in 1968. She was elected to represent the Upper Peninsula on the Michigan Women's Bowling Association board from 1974 to 1986, and was named to the Michigan Women's Bowling Association (MWBA) Hall of Fame for meritorious service in 1986. In 1987, she was selected to open the MWBA's state tournament by throwing the first ball and getting the first strike of the tournament.

Mrs. Trainor was born February 11, 1924, in Sault Ste. Marie to Sarah Catherine "Sadie" Lane and David Charles Oremus. She was the eighth of nine children born to the Oremus family and, because all the girls' first names were Mary, she was addressed by her second name.

While attending St. Mary's Grade School during an outbreak of polio in 1931, she was quarantined for 30 days at War Memorial Hospital. Vaccine was rushed to the Sault from the James Cousins Polio Bank in Marquette by Michigan State Police on motorcycles. After grade school, she attended school for two years in Saginaw, then returned to the Sault, where she was graduated from Sault High School in 1942. She then moved to Detroit to work and live with her mother and sisters, Corkey and Dody.

She met her future husband, Gordon Trainor, in Sault Ste. Marie when he fell in front of her while ice skating in January 1942, and he would joke for many years, "I fell for her." They were married by her brother, Father William C. Oremus, at St. Bridget's Rectory in Detroit February 20, 1946, and returned to Sault Ste. Marie, then moved to St. Ignace in 1948.

The Trainors reared four children at their High Street residence and, after 27 years, moved to Pointe LaBarbe.

Mrs. Trainor served as a Cub Scout den mother and Girl Scout Campfire leader. She was an American Legion Auxiliary secretary for five years, a Dolan Robinson Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary treasurer for 14 years, and a member of St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church, where she was a past president of St. Ann's Altar Society and a member of the church choir for 12 years.

In 1968 she joined the St. Ignace Women of the Moose 1484, where she served in every position. She also earned the Academy of Friendship, Star Recorder, Green Cap, and, in 1983, the College of Regents. In 1971 she was named a St. Ignace Homemaker of the Week.

Mrs. Trainor was diagnosed with macular degeneration in 1983 and with Parkinson's disease in 2002. She continued to attend church and regular Women of the Moose and VFW meetings, assisted by friends MariAn and Ray Huhn. She also participated in a Wednesday afternoon card club with Emma Brown, Janice Wyers, Georgiana Savard, and Prudy Mills as late as 2006.

She is survived by two sons and their families, Captain Ronald and Jean Trainor of Massachusetts and Christopher and Michelle Trainor of Holland; two daughters and their families, Barbara and Bill Hoyt of St. Ignace and Geralyn and Robert Michels of L'Anse; and two sisters, Dody Lake of Clearwater, Florida, and Corkey Doran of Ann Arbor; eight grandchildren; 10 greatgrandchildren, and one great-greatgrandson.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 52 years, Gordon, who died of congestive heart failure April 16, 1999. Her father David died in 1935 when she was 11, and her mother, "Sadie" died in 1959.

A Women of the Moose service was conducted Monday, March 10, at Dodson Funeral Home in St. Ignace.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Tuesday, March 11, at St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church in St. Ignace. Father Allen Mott officiated. Parish prayers were led with Deacon Don Olmstead.

Memorial donations can be made to Hospice House of Cheboygan. Donation envelopes are at Dodson Funeral Home.