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Letter to the editor

First her height impressed him, then her strength

By STEPHANIE HAYES, Times Staff Writer
Published September 8, 2007

CLEARWATER - Fred Drew remembers the jukebox, the soda and a 17-year-old girl named Mary Ann sitting on a stool. It was 1948.

She stood, and towered 3 inches over the 5-foot-4 Fred. Slack jawed, he peered uppppp.

Mary Ann didn't care for Fred. On their blind date, she rode pressed to the car door - if it wasn't locked, she would have fallen onto the road.

Fred persisted. He went to Mary Ann's high school talent show to see her sing an Italian street song. It drove him wild.

Mary Ann finally came around. A year after they met, when she was 18 and he was 21, they married. In the wedding photos, they're about the same height. Fred's father made him stand on a stack of music books.

* * *

She was quiet, the opposite of Fred, 79. He scolds himself for speaking before thinking, something Mary Ann told him not to do. He remembers her moxie. Once, at a little league concession stand, a man flashed a gun. "Sir, you put that gun away, and I'll wait on you," she said.

At Northwood Presbyterian Church, she sang in the choir and organized the music and robes. She made elaborate church dinners and wrote a cookbook.

Fred beams at her awards from Presbyterian Women and the Sertoma Club

Years ago, their daughter Carol was killed in a hit-and-run accident, Fred was so distraught, he couldn't say Carol's name. Mary Ann carried him through.

She was strong, too, when the breast cancer came three years ago. When she got the news, she sat on the couch and cried. Then she made apple cobbler.

When it returned in June, she reminded Fred of their 58 years together. She didn't want machines keeping her alive.

In the hospital, he helped bathe her and change her sheets. Last week, she died. She was 76.

* * *

Mary Ann and Fred loved to sit together and watch family photos slide by on their computer screen. Fred still watches them every night, then goes to sleep.

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or 727893-8857.

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Ann Drew

Born: July 13, 1931.

Died: Sept. 1, 2007.

Survivors: Husband, Fred; sons, Richard and his wife, Rolena, and Scott and his wife, Dawn. Four grandchildren. Predeceased by daughter, Carol Scoggin.

Holloway Funeral Home.

[Last modified September 7, 2007, 22:28:39]