02/07/2026
Mary Catherine (Woody) Harlan died February 3 of
natural causes, having recently celebrated her 100th birthday (December 3) with her 3 sons, 10 grandchildren and their spouses, and 9 great grandchildren. Her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren all survive her as her most cherished legacy. On her birthday, she learned that 2 more greatgrandchildren were on their way, which brought a whimsical, incredulous smile to her face.
Mary was born in Columbus, Ohio to Mary Adelaide Burns and Robert Edgar Woody, an itinerant carpenter. The small family (parents with Mary and her sister Mildred) moved frequently up and down the eastern seaboard as he sought work during the Great Depression. They settled in Detroit, where she attended Girls’ Catholic Central HS and then Michigan State University, graduating in 1949 as an English major. Her first job was teaching journalism at Highland Park HS in a Detroit suburb, and soon thereafter the school’s newspaper won a national award. Later in life, when her boys were of age, she earned a master’s in library science and for many years was the media resources director at several local elementary and high schools.
She married John Ellsworth Harlan in 1952, and together they had 3 sons - John Woody Harlan, David Marshall Harlan, and Robert Campbell Harlan. She was a proud and attentive mother who expected only the best from her boys. This included instruction about table manners and intolerance of any but “The King’s English” at the dinner table, “for when you’re invited to the White House someday. “
She was widowed in 1987. After a time, her sons encouraged her to date and possibly remarry. She replied: “Why would I want some old goat who just wants me to cook and do his laundry?” She traveled widely later in life and visited most of the countries in the
northern hemisphere, in some cases two or three times.
All who knew her, especially her grandchildren, recognized her formidable intelligence and fierce independence- but also that she was a strict disciplinarian. She volunteered to babysit a five-year-old granddaughter for a long weekend when the parents visited
northern Michigan. After their vacation, upon the parents picking their daughter up, the little girl got in the car and exclaimed: “Don’t leave me with that woman again.” Later in life, at her assisted living residence, Mary was asked to leave the trivia team because she knew all the answers and was dominating the competition. She devoured English literature and remembered what she read.
When in college and later for family reunions, she loved summers in northern Michigan, but also driving vacations with her family throughout the Midwest, South, and Northeast. She also loved to winter in her Vero Beach, FL condo; musical theater (especially when David’s children were performing); musicians like Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra; and dining favorites included onion rings, Heath Bars, fresh peaches, cantaloupe, and (to her son’s dismay since they too had to eat it) rhubarb. Above all else, she loved supporting her husband and boys. Those who survive her will miss her pot roasts, remember her frequently, and we will smile.
The family will hold a small private memorial service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that anyone interested in honoring Mary’s life consider a donation in her memory to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
