Moorcroft Leader - The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming

Mary Lois (Tuffy) Gauthier (90) of Sugar Land, Texas (formerly of Moorcroft, Wyoming and Milwaukie, Oregon) passed away peacefully in her sleep on Monday, June 7, 2021.

Memorial services will be held Saturday, June 26, at 10 a.m. at Sugar Land Mortuary, located at 1818 Eldridge Rd., Sugar Land, Texas 77478. A small reception will follow in the State Room of Sugar Land Mortuary.

Burial will take place at the Moorcroft Cemetery in Moorcroft, Wyoming at a later date.

Mary (known as Tuffy to her friends) died Monday, June 7, 2021 of natural causes. She was born October 15, 1930, in Upton, Wyoming to Otis Marion and Vera Katherine (Mattox) Deeder.

Mary was third in line of four daughters. She was blessed with an undaunting spirit and against all odds, she raised four children on her own, never letting adversity pull her down.

She always had a kind word, she lived life on her own terms…leaving personal judgments to others, which we are proud to say came very naturally to her. She never met a stranger, embraced everyone she met with a smile…leaving a loving impression on all who were touched by her.

Mary grew up in and around Moorcroft, Wyoming. She graduated from Moorcroft High School in 1949.

She later attended Sheridan Beauty College in Sheridan, Wyoming. After graduating in 1963, she moved back to her hometown of Moorcroft, where she opened the “Gauthier Beauty Shop,” where she was a hairdresser until she retired some 20 years later.

In 2015, Mary went to live with her son Ron and wife Annie in Milwaukee, Oregon. She loved her home there, surrounded by love from family, two little white furry friends and working in their flower garden.

She would often talk of her days helping with the harvesting of apples and the unique process she would go through to protect the apples that were picked. We are so grateful for all the time and extra work Ron and Annie put into seeing that she was well cared for during her four-year stay in Oregon.

In 2019, declining health made it necessary for her to move to Sugar Land, Texas to be near her daughter Patti, where she would make her final home at Inspired Living Sugar Land. She was under the care of hospice and wonderful caregivers until her peaceful passing.

We are comforted knowing she is now living pain free, possibly working in a beautiful flower garden with hummingbirds that she so loved, buzzing all about!

Mary was preceded in death by her parents, Otis and Vera Deeder; three sisters, Juanita L. Griffith, of Carlile, Wyoming, Vera K. Hall of Gillette, Wyoming, Jessie M. Sowa, of Littleton, Colorado; and son, Donald L. Gauthier of Hallettsville, Texas.

She is survived by two sons, Frank S. (Jean) Lauters of Montgomery, Texas, Ronald F. (Annie) Gauthier of Milwaukie, Oregon; one daughter, Patricia A. (Ron) Jackson of Sugar Land, Texas; and a precious daughter-in-law, Linda, the wife of her late son Donald of Hallettsville, Texas. She is also survived by and blessed with many nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“The apostle Paul teaches us that at the coming of the Lord Jesus, those who have gone on before will rise first and we “shall be caught up together with them…And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians. 4:17)