Former newspaper owner Mary Goode (Garber) Wallis, 101, of Madison, died Saturday, March 30, 2013, at her residence.
Born Sept. 25, 1911, in Madison, she was the daughter of Michael E. and Bess (Hampton) Garber.
Wallis was a graduate of Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. Early in her life she was a legal secretary in Louisville and after her marriage, lived in Columbus, Ohio, for six years.
For many years, she and her late husband owned and operated The Madison Courier, which has been in the Garber family since 1849.
She was a member of the Madison Presbyterian Church, where she had taught Sunday school and was the oldest living member at the time of her death.
Formerly, she held memberships in Historic Madison Inc., the Madison-Jefferson County Library Board, where she was a former president, the Jefferson County Association of Retarded Citizens, where she served on the board and was instrumental in the founding of what is now Sandstone Industries, Tri-Kappa Sorority, Jefferson County Historical Society, King’s Daughters’ Hospital and Hospice volunteer.
Survivors include one daughter, Jane W. Jacobs of Madison; six grandchildren: Curt Jacobs and his wife, Nancy, of Madison; William Jacobs of Madison, Sally Clymer and her husband, Kevin, of Falmouth, Mass.; Laura Wallis of Northhampton, Mass.; Sarah Wallis of Yellow Springs, Ohio; and Jessica Wallis of Boulder, Co.; six great grandchildren: Conner, Ruby, Curtis and Katie Jacobs, and Carolyn and William Clymer; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Donald R. Wallis Sr. in 1989, to whom she was married on June 12, 1939, in Madison; two sons: Michael Christian Wallis in 1954, and Donald R. Wallis Jr. in 2012; and three sisters: Caroline Garber, Bess Garber Neal and Ellen Garber Burton.
