Mary Ann (McDowell) Rogers

SACO – Mary Ann (McDowell) Rogers, 94, passed away peacefully in Saco on Dec. 31, 2021, surrounded by her loving family.

She was born in Murphysboro, Ill. on April 10, 1927, the daughter of John Marion McDowell and Jennie Marie (Ferrill) McDowell (and was fiercely proud of being a coal miner’s daughter).

Mary Ann was a graduate of Sparta, (Illinois) High School and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, earning a B.A. degree in Education in 1949. Her first teaching job was at Trico High School (Campbell Hill, Ill.), where she met and then married the love of her life, James Norman Rogers. She next taught in Clifton, Ill., and after moving to O’Fallon, Ill. in the summer of 1966, she finished her 38-year teaching career at Lebanon (Illinois) Junior High School, retiring in 1989.

Committed to public service, she was a proud member of the Rebekah Lodge, an international Christian service-oriented organization. She joined the Rebekahs on May 1, 1945 and became a member of the Pride of St. Clair 145 lodge in 1975. In 1990, Mary Ann became the president of the Rebekah Assembly of Illinois, and later became state treasurer for several years. She was also a charter member of the local chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional honor society of key women educators worldwide. As those who knew her came to know, any commitment made by Mary Ann was followed by a dogged determination to succeed.

After retiring from a teaching career, Mary Ann purchased the Atlantic View Inn in Ocean Park, and cherished her role as an innkeeper, or more accurately, as a “retired teacher/innkeeper”.

Mary Ann enjoyed travel (she loved her cruises), ice cream, any food with sugar or chocolate, and mostly her family and the many, many friends she met and loved on her long and beloved life’s journey.

Surviving are her two sons, Scott (Becky) Rogers of Fox River Grove, Ill., and James “Brad” (Kim) Rogers of Saco; six grandsons, Christopher Rogers, James McDermott, Jonathan Rogers, Sean McDermott, Tyler Rogers and Jack Rogers, and in answer to her prayers, one granddaughter, Emily Ann Rogers.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Jim; her daughters Nancee Ann Rogers and Kimberly Ann (Rogers) McDermott; her parents John and Jennie McDowell; her sister, Irene Conover, her brother, John “Jack” McDowell, her sister-in-law, Elsie Rodden and their spouses.

Condolences may be made to the family at http://www.schildknechtfh.com.

Visitation will be held on Monday, Jan. 10 from 10 a.m. to noon, with funeral services starting at noon at the Schildknecht Funeral Home, 301 S Lincoln Ave., O’Fallon, IL 62269. It will be followed by a family burial service in Percy, Ill.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Schildknecht Funeral Home.

Memorials for those wishing to remember Mary Ann in a special way may be made to the

Illinois Odd Fellow/Rebekah Scholarship Fund,

P.O. Box 248,

Lincoln, IL 62656.