Up until the last moment, Mary Jorn was quick with the quip. She was devoted to charity and advertising copy.
By Times Staff Writer
Published June 11, 2004
TAMPA - After Mary Jorn's breast cancer had spread to her lungs and she couldn't breathe without oxygen, her oncologist, Dr. David Wright, came to her bedside at St. Joseph's Hospital. If she kept going downhill, Wright told her, he would have no choice but to put her on a ventilator.
Jorn asked what the upside would be.
Among other things, Wright told her, she would be unconscious and unable to speak.
"Well," Jorn replied, "that's the upside for you. I was wondering what the upside is for me."
"That," Evan Jorn said with a chuckle, "said it all about my wife."
After a six-month battle with cancer, Mary Lind Jorn, a former journalist and much sought-after advertising copywriter, died Thursday (June 3, 2004) at St. Joseph's. She was 51.
Mrs. Jorn worked at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Sarasota Journal as a copy editor and reporter for several years in the mid-1970s. She later joined Louis Benito Advertising, at one point one of the largest advertising firms in the Tampa Bay area.
In 1980, Mrs. Jorn entered into a partnership with longtime friend Rayna Lancaster and formed Two Writers/No Waiting, a Tampa-based advertising copywriting business. She worked there until earlier this year.
Mrs. Jorn was a member, elder and Sunday school teacher at Bayshore Presbyterian Church, and she volunteered at the Beth-El Farmworker Mission, a facility owned by the Presbyterian church that offers a variety of help to migrant farm workers in Hillsborough County. Her husband serves as director of the mission.
"Mary's last big video project was to make a video for Beth-El," said her husband. "It was a labor of love."
Mrs. Jorn was 6-feet tall, had blond hair and blue eyes, "and we just fit together," Evan Jorn said. The couple were college sweethearts and married in 1974.
"She always had time for anybody who was looking to get into the business," her husband said. "And she really loved conversation. She was just so open to everybody and so funny.
"Always there with a quick word, just cracking people up. Right up until the day before she died."
Born at Fort Campbell, Ky. and raised at military bases around the world, Mrs. Jorn held degrees in journalism and education from the University of Kansas.
She is survived by her husband of 30 years, Evan; two sons, Christian Lee Jorn of Valrico and Matthew Evan Jorn of Tallahassee; two brothers, Thomas Lind Jr. and Andrew Lind, and two sisters, Nancy Lind and Lori Lind, all of Tampa; her parents, Thomas and Nellie Lind of Venice, and 10 nieces, four nephews and a granddaughter.
A memorial service was held Monday. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Bayshore Presbyterian Church, 2515 Bayshore Blvd., Tampa, 33629, or to the Beth-El Farmworker Mission, P.O. Box 860, Wimauma, Fl, 33598.
