Mary Kelly Bennett

Mary K. Bennett

Mary made history as one of the first women Marines! She was born in Portland and adopted by the Bennett family. She graduated from Jefferson High School in 1941. Studied at an electrical school and worked at the Vancouver shipyard during the war. She then got her pilot’s license so she could fly Piper Cubs from Swan Island to the airbases. She learned to fly before she could drive a car. After that, she joined the United States Marine Corps and was based in Santa Ana. The friends she made then were lifelong.

When the war ended she went back to school on the GI Bill, first the Portland Art Museum, then the Los Angeles Art Center and finally to graduate  from Lewis and Clark College. She did free-lance art designing and had two pieces in a show at the Portland Art Museum. Later she worked in real estate and later was hired by the City of Portland in the Water Bureau. In order to be promoted she had to be an Engineer, so she took the test and passed, which resulted in a better job, from which she eventually retired.

Mary Lived independently until she was 92 and couldn’t recover from a stroke. She was predeceased by her husband and son Mark. She is survived by her best friend George Thrower, Sr.