Ann Boice is a longtime Habitat friend.  When she was younger she remembers driving her mother, Mary Kelley, to some of the first Habitat home dedications.  It was Mary, along with Reverend George Tolman and Jerry McFarland, who founded Habitat for Humanity Tucson.

Ann remembers her mother, who passed away in 2003, as “a teacher…the head of the youth program at church who also did a lot of work with the University foreign exchange program.”

“Whenever I’d come home it was always, ‘who’s in my bed tonight?’” she remembers fondly since Mary welcomed everyone with open arms.

Mary met the founder of Habitat International, Millard Fuller, in Americus, Georgia and became interested in the Habitat mission.  She saw what Habitat was doing in other states and overseas in Africa and was inspired by the partnership Habitat had with the families and the relationship they formed through working on their homes.

According to Ann, Mary had many roles at Habitat; she was record keeper extraordinaire and she ‘drummed up business.’  Ann remembers that whenever the construction site would run out of supplies, “mother would go talk to another group,” and they’d be able to start up again.

“She loved to bake and she would always take sweet rolls out to the site,” Ann said.  “She liked to paint the trim, that’s what Mary did.”

“You couldn’t turn Mary Kelley down, she got the kids and everyone involved,” said Ann.

Ann first started with Habitat by helping Mary with a variety of activities.  She then joined the Board of Directors in 1990 and has been volunteering ever since.

When Mary passed away, instead of holding a service for her, Ann and her family built a Habitat home in her honor.

By Amanda Thomas