Mary Anna Richardson

Mary Anna Ohlgren was born In November, 1944, in Litchfield, Minnesota. She attended schools in nearby Cokato, Minnesota. An excellent student, she went on to the University of Minnesota, where she graduated with a degree in English. Becoming a teacher, she taught English to school girls in Thailand for her two year s in the Peace Corps. She later taught briefly in the Minneapolis public schools. She decided to immigrate to southern California, where she worked as first a proofreader and then as business librarian for the Touche Ross and Arthur Andersen accounting firms. She studied further and obtained a masters degree in Library Science at the University of Southern California. She met Ryden Richardson, Jr. at Angelica Lutheran Church in Los Angeles in 1976, and was married to Ryden by Ryden’s uncle at the First Baptist Church in Coronado, California, in May, 1977. Ryden and Mary were married for over 37 years. Mary first came to El Paso in 1978, when Ryden, working for the U.S. Customs Service, was voluntarily reassigned from Cleveland, Ohio to El Paso. Ryden had pleasant memories of El Paso from first visiting here in 1962. Ryden’s grandfather had been part of the Mexican Punitive Expedition here in 1916. Mary worked for the Youngs and for General Ernst Roberts at El Paso National Bank as a business librarian. Returning to southern California, she later worked as a librarian for the San Marino Public Library, San Marino, and California. It was here in 1996 that she was forced into involuntary retirement because of the continuing crippling effects of multiple sclerosis. She successfully fought the progressive effects of multiple sclerosis for 30 years. She lived in retirement in Alta Loma and San Clemente, California, as well as Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and El Paso. Mary especially loved music and sang in church choirs for over thirty years. Her musical career began with singing solos in the Lutheran church in Cokato at under ten years of age. The night before her hospitalization on December 21st past, Mary was enjoying singing Christmas carols at a choir party of the Ascension Lutheran Church choir. Mary is survived by her husband as well as a brother, Leslie Koivula of Tryon, North Carolina, a brother, Richard Ohlgren of Albuquerque, a sister, Faye Ledoux of Minneapolis, and a sister-in-law, Elsie Koivula of Cokato, Minnesota, as well as three other sibling-in-law, and nephews and a niece. She was predeceased by a brother, Martin Koivula, of Cokato, as well as her parents, Herman and Lilja Ohlgren. Both of Mary’s parents were natives of Finland who immigrated to the United States, Mary’s father becoming here a large animal veterinarian. A memorial service will be held remembering Mary on Saturday, February 7, 2015, at 2:00 p.m. Gifts of plants or floral arrangements for her service will be welcomed at the church the day of the service, at Ascension Lutheran Church, 6520 Loma De Cristo, El Paso, Texas 79912 Services entrusted to Sunset Funeral Home-West. Please visit our online register book at www.sunsetfuneralhomes.net