Mary Ann (Riley)

February 24, 1933 – January 3, 2025

Mary Ann died peacefully at her home on Bainbridge Island after a long and wonderful life.

Mary Ann, aka Mary Ann Riely, nee Dreyer, was born in Independence Kansas to Jessie Francis Dreyer, nee Cordry, and Arnold Henry Dreyer. When she was five years old, her parents relocated her and her older brother, Arnold Junior, to Weslaco Texas. She graduated from North Texas State in Denton. While serving as president of her sorority, Delta Gamma, she attended a conference in Sun Valley Idaho, where she was set up on a blind date with Keith Riely, who happened to be traveling east with his University of Washington crew team. Mary Ann subsequently took a job at Filene’s in Boston, but persuasive letters from Keith brought her west. They married in April1956 at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. Mary Ann and Keith settled and began raising their four children in North Seattle. In 1967 they bought a cabin on Bainbridge Island and eventually moved permanently to that location.

Mary Ann was an exceptional homemaker and a fun-loving mother. She worked at Shorett & Riely for many years, but her true passion was exploration and travel. She visited 85 countries in her lifetime, first with her husband, Keith, until his death in 2002, then with her children and grandchildren. Her prized adventure happened at the age of 78, when she took off for several months with a backpack on her back and accompanied by two of her grandsons, trekked through fourteen countries in Eastern Europe, Russia, and “the stans,” ending up in Iran.

Above all Mary was about family, which was why in 2022 she sold her Seattle condo, a base from which she attended weekly symphonies, plays, and lectures, and purchased her own condo in Winslow where she could see her family on a daily basis.

Mary embodied an unusual openness to new ideas, practiced abounding generosity, served as a hub of connectivity to people from all over the world and had a can-do spirit that impressed all who knew her. She is dearly missed by her four children and their spouses, Mark Riely (Brenda), Julie Riely, (Anthony), David Riely, (Shauna), Peter Riely, (Marta), her seven beloved grandsons, Trenton, Taylor, Cranston, Darton, Henry, Tyler and Garret, and many other relatives and friends. She is also survived by nine great grandchildren, Mojave, Atlas, Ophelia and Clyde of Bainbridge Island, Hadley and Poppy of Vashon Island, and Martin, Emory and Hazel of Acworth, Georgia.

A celebration of Mary’s life will be held on August 9th, 2025.