SOMEONE whose life had been woven in the commerce, sport and arts life in Crediton died on October 28 not many weeks after her 91st birthday.

Mary Isabel Way (nee Stark) was that person. Her funeral service was at Crediton Parish Church yesterday, Thursday, November 8.

She ran the first delicatessen in the town, helped her husband John with his haulage and coach businesses, made carnival floats, ran the netball club, taught and, in later life, joined the bowling club.

Mary’s early years were at Heavitree, Exeter. Her grandfather was a gamekeeper at Poltimore House, her father worked for Exeter City Council.

Her daughter Sue Way remembers: "The Blitz at Exeter and World War Two bombing were some of her most heartfelt memories.

"She remembers climbing over rubble, using an  Anderson shelter and being so relieved that her father survived when one bomb fell near their home."

Mary won a scholarship to Maynard’s  School, trained to be a teacher at Gloucester College, specialising in Domestic Science.

Her first job was at Castle Carey where she and a friend ran the Girl Guides and Mary played netball for Somerset.

She and John met at a dance at the Old Town Hall in Crediton after he had returned from serving in India and Burma in WW2. They married in December, 1951, living at the Market House pub, now The Three Little Pigs.

They later moved to 39 High Street where all four children were born - Jill, Susan, Charles and Ruth.

Sue says: "We had holidays in  Cornwall and North Devon. Mum was very involved in Crediton Netball Club, supporting Crediton Carnival every year with fabulous floats for the procession and doing wonderful signs to advertise the Way and Son coach trips.

"One year Mum did a carnival float with mermaids. They were all dressed upstairs in the pub with their flippers, but how to get them downstairs? So John got his men from across the road to carry them all down to the float.

"Mum loved the church and her belief in God and the life of the spirit always supported her right to her end.

"She made wonderful Easter gardens and was an active member of Crediton branch Mothers’ Union for 50 years.

"She supported John, a Freemason at Unity Lodge, Crediton, and loved the Royal Masonic Ladies Nights, dressing up once-a-year in something glamourous."

She also organised children’s parties at Christmas in the old Church Worker’s Institute on Union Road (now European Dental Laboratory Ltd).

For a while Mary returned to teaching, working at Shelley School (now QE Lower School) and then opened the delicatessen on Market Street, becoming famous for her delicious pies and quiches for functions and her pasties.

This later became MRS 2000 the motor factors and is now Ashton’s Coffee Lounge.

When they lived at 39 High Street (now Trawler’s Catch) there was no shop on the ground floor, that was their sitting room.

There were more moves in town for the family before they bought Greenleas at Bow opposite the former railway station, keeping the flat over the shop as their "town base" for the grown-up children.

John’s death in 1986 hit Mary hard but she picked herself up, moved to a flat on the High Street, did a lot of sewing and mending for Crediton Attik theatre company, had holidays abroad with friends and the family, began playing bowls, and following the lives of her children and grandchildren, very proud of their achievements.

Jill did a degree in multi-cultural education and taught at a Primary School.

Sue runs her own business and classes at her home, Moose Hall, Bowden Hill at Crediton.

Charlie is a playwright, has written more than 40 plays, which have been produced all over the world.

Ruth lives at Sandford and is Associate Head of School Performing Arts at the University of Plymouth,

Mary’s later years, when she became affected by Alzheimer’s were at Summerhayes.

With her four children, Mary leaves seven grandchildren.

Donations in her memory for FORCE Cancer Charity may be made through A White and Sons, Albert Road, Crediton EX17 3BZ.