Mary Jeanne Myers

In Loving Memory of

Mary Jeanne Sneath Myers
1925 – 2022

Mary Jeanne (Sneath) Myers passed away peacefully in her sleep on June 21, 2022, at her home in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.  She was 97 years old and was close by her beloved family.  Mrs. Myers was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on February 7, 1925, to the late George Neff Sneath and Susan (Gerlach) Sneath (later Vollmer).  Lancaster was to be her home for eight decades.  She was fond of recalling her childhood days at Mary Street Elementary School, and helped her children enjoy grammar school by teaching them her own school song (first stanza:  “For we’re the students of Mary Street, we think that we are hard to beat.  To go to school we think a treat, for we’re the students of Mary Street.”).

Mary Jeanne grew up in a boisterous household of five active and opinionated brothers, all of whom served in and survived World War II.  She also had a beloved but older sister who was a life-long friend to Mary Jeanne and her children.  Mary Jeanne attended J.P. McCaskey High School in Lancaster.  Although she was a member of the Class of 1942, she did not graduate until 2015, on the occasion of her 90th birthday, when the McCaskey School Board voted unanimously to honor her long life and many accomplishments by awarding her the diploma she was denied in 1942.  It seems they had a rule that forbade married girls from remaining in school, and as Mary Jeanne was married before the end of her senior year, she was asked to leave before graduation.  That never seemed to hold her back.

Mary Jeanne met her future husband, the late John Johns Myers, in August 1941 at Benny’s Place, a teen dance hall in Quarryville, but she was slow to warm to the assertive young man from Manheim Township.  He persisted, however, and they began courting the next month, and by Christmas of that year they were engaged to be married.  John received her father’s blessing over a game of checkers at the Sneath home at Christmas holiday, and they were married on January 31 at the Bethany Evangelical Church in Lancaster.  The couple had just eight months together before John shipped off to Panama for war service in the Air Corps Supply Office.  John returned to Lancaster 18 months later and the couple set up housekeeping as John began working in the family’s dairy business (with occasional help from Mary Jeanne making milk route deliveries).

The couple’s first child was born in April 1944, and over the ensuing 40 years John and Mary Jeanne delivered and reared seven children (five daughters, two sons), who initially attended Manheim Township schools and then switched to Conestoga Valley when the family moved to their longtime home on the New Holland Pike near Leola.  In those many years and varied experiences, Mary Jeanne was a faithful and devoted wife and mother, authoring a steady home environment that produced successful students and productive citizens and community leaders.

At various points in her life, Mary Jeanne’s children were spread about the country, living in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Nashville (and, for three years, Japan), but her patience bore her out in her last twenty years, as all but one of her children eventually returned to Pennsylvania and all but two joined Mary Jeanne and John to live in Pittsburgh, where they all were within a few miles of each other.  This allowed Mary Jeanne a year-round version of the gatherings she had often hosted for every year for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and summer vacation at the beach.  For the last ten years, all of her Pittsburgh family, with occasional visits from those outside the ‘Burgh, gathered at Mary Jeanne’s place on Sunday nights for dinner and sometimes a movie.  These gatherings continued up to this past Sunday, and probably will go on in honor of the joy it brought her to have her family close by on a regular basis.

Mary Jeanne was known throughout her marriage and motherhood for her culinary skills, especially baking.  She was best known for her cherry pies and her chocolate cakes—some favored the vanilla icing, others her patented peanut butter icing, but she was known for making many other goodies that warmed her family’s hearts when they came home from their many activities every day.  On each birthday, she allowed the birthday child to pick a favorite dinner for the entire family that evening, and it was a memorable and tasty privilege that stays with them even today.  She was perhaps best known, however, as a matchless seamstress.  For decades, until she was physically unable to do the intricate work, she meticulously crafted smocked dresses for her granddaughters and others, as well as many other types of dresses and clothing—including the widely popular pajamas for kids.  They were the most comfortable and comforting get-ups to help put children to sleep—and one set landed her youngest daughter in the local newspaper at age 8 to model the sleepwear.  Her handiwork drew comments and praise wherever they were seen.  Another favorite were the beautifully lined winter coats and capes she designed and made for daughters and granddaughters.

Quality was her watchword when it came to clothing and conduct for her family.  It began with insisting that her children address her as “Mother.”  “Mom” just would not do.  Even more, however, her innate and insistent sense of quality went to the clothing her family wore.  She never had large budgets to work with, but there was no question in any child’s mind where this family shopped for clothing—and where it most certainly did not.  Those were standards imposed as a matter of excellence, not competition, and they stayed with each of her children to this day—a sort of mindfulness of whether this store or that fabric would stand up to Mother’s scrutiny.

Mrs. Myers was preceded in death by her husband in 2011 and by three grandchildren, triplet boys, who died in infancy and childhood in 1970 and 1975 (Whitney Baker Smyth, Jr., Douglas Charles Smyth, and Patrick Myers Smyth).  She was also preceded in death by her father in 1945, her mother in 1983, all five of her brothers (Nelson in 1979, George in 2001, Mervin in 2002, Everett in 2009, and Robert in 2015).  She was preceded also by three siblings who died in infancy in 1918, 1926, and 1927, and by three half siblings from her father’s first marriage in the 1890’s:  Clarence Sneath in 1967, Mabel Sneath Rutter in 1985, Willis Sneath in 1996. 

Mary Jeanne came from and thrived in a large and voluble family, and she gave birth to an equally large and voluble progeny.  She is survived by her seven children, Sharon Rose Smyth (Whitney Baker Smyth) of Nashville, Sarajane Waltman of Pittsburgh, John Jay Myers of Pittsburgh, Susan Annette Castillo (James Castillo) of Harrisburg, Beth Ann Svendsen (Randall Scott Svendsen) of Pittsburgh, William Sneath Myers (Charlene Rae Myers) of Pittsburgh, and Lori Louise Moran of Pittsburgh.  She is also survived by 28 grandchildren and their spouses, and by 21 great-grandchildren, and of course, many nieces and nephews and their families.

Rest in peace, Mother, watching from Heaven with Dad.