Mary Solie was born Mary Louise Carney on May 26, 1915, in Des Moines, Iowa, to Earl Carney and Louise Bisbee Carney. She was the second child in a family that included her older brother, John, and her younger sister, Elsie. Her happy childhood in Des Moines was enlivened by several family trips west in the 1920's (by model T auto) and by the study of music, especially violin and piano.
She graduated from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines in 1932, attended Drake University, and graduated with a degree in music education from the University of Minnesota, where she met fellow music student, John Solie. She and John were married in 1938 in Des Moines (60 years ago this past January 3). They both came to Dawson in the fall of 1938, engaged by the school district to teach band, choir, orchestra, and elementary music. For a brief period during the war, Mary also taught junior-high math.
Their three sons, John Eric, Roger, and Mark, were born in 1942, 1947, and 1952. Shortly after the war, Mary left teaching to stay home with this demanding brood, while continuing to give private instrumental lessons. She returned to public-school teaching again in 1960, when she and John revived the Dawson school orchestra program. Besides teaching the violin and viola to young beginners, she taught elementary classroom music, and helped with the various productions - from grade school Christmas programs to community musicals - that she and John undertook.
Mary and John both retired from the Dawson schools in 1976. Mary continued to give private violin lessons to Dawson schoolchildren for the next 22 years, up until just a few weeks ago.
Mary and John Solie were awarded the Master Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association in 1990. She also took great pride in her husband John's numerous teaching awards, such as his MMEA Hall of Fame Award of 1994. Among her other interests were travel, reading, and enjoying the company of her 8 grandchildren. She was active in the Dawson Study Club for over 50 years.
Both she and John played their instruments whenever invited to do so, most especially in the Southwest State Orchestra in Marshall, and also in the Ottertail Valley Community Orchestra in Fergus Falls, with sons Roger and Mark, daughter-in-law Rebecca, and several of their grandchildren.
Her death, at the age of 82, on February 12, 1998, at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Dawson, was calm and peaceful.
She is survived by her husband John Solie of Dawson; sons:Rick (Priscilla) Solie of Boston, MA, Roger (Ruth) Solie of Detroit Lakes, and Mark (Rebecca) Solie of Fergus Falls; and 8 grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; brother, John Carney and sister, Elsie Siebold.