Mary Lindsay's love for friends, family set her apart

Local columnist

link Karl Terry

Mary Lindsay was the only confirmed live bait angler I ever met who could tie dry flies like nobody’s business.

She tied them with her husband to finance their trips to the mountains of Colorado, a summertime escape from the scorching eastern New Mexico summers. Even though she had been given the opportunity and training to fly fish she still preferred to drown a live worm in the spring creeks of southern Colorado while her husband found another section of stream in which to wave his fly rod.

I have a fond spot in my heart for any woman who ever fished alongside me, but her fishing or fly tying skills aren’t what made Mary special. Her love for her family and friends are what set her apart.

I came to know her and her husband Lee when I lived in Tucumcari. We were best friends with her daughter and son-in-law and the first few times we met them were at holidays when they would visit. I liked being around the couple a lot when they visited but I came to love them after experiencing their hospitality at their home in Artesia.

For years we went down to stay with them during deer season. Mary’s beloved house was too small for a visit from more than one couple at a time but she brought out blankets and made pallets and everyone was comfortable in her house.

I had always camped in the field when deer hunting in previous years so I was more than a little skeptical about coming in to a house in town every night. I soon found out how wrong that attitude was.

We had nearly an hour’s drive to the ranch we hunted and Lee insisted we be there before first light. So that meant getting up somewhere around 4 a.m. The first person stirring each morning was Mary. She made epic hunter breakfasts — breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy or, if we talked nice to her, she made Indian fry bread.

She always packed us a great lunch and when we got home after dark she had a big supper waiting for us. The first time I ever had an elk roast Mary prepared it with loving care.

She came about her kitchen skills through a lifetime of hard work in school lunchrooms. Even though she reported to school early for years as an adult she had never finished high school A case of tuberculosis prevented that but in her 50s she hit the books again and earned her GED.

At her funeral services this past week, her daughter asked if I remembered helping mom with her algebra problems for GED around Mary’s dining room table on one of those hunting trips. I vaguely remembered it.

I doubt I was ever any help to Mary or anyone with algebra. But I did learn a lot around her table. Life is so much richer when we have humble people with a servant’s heart in our lives.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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