Mary Lee Raybould Curtis, 84, of Rexburg, passed away peacefully on November 19, 2022, at Living Legacy Senior Care Home in Mesa, Arizona where she resided since 2015. Mary Lee suffered from Huntington's Disease.

Mary Lee was born at the Middleton's Maternity Home on June 11, 1938, to Leland E and Mary Hunt Raybould. Her father related that the doctor had to plunge Mary Lee into hot and cold water several times before she started to breathe. He wrote, "We almost lost her, but she has been breathing and going strong ever since."

Mary Lee's parents built the white house on the corner of Main Street and 3rd East. Smith Park was the Seventies Field back then. Mary Lee and her neighborhood friends made the ditch and Rexburg's canal into an imaginary play land. She remained close to her childhood friends throughout her life and added many friends through the years.

She also spent her childhood trying to climb trees as high or ski as fast as her older brother, Dell and his friends.

After her younger brother John's birth, her mother became ill, and Mary Lee's grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Hunt, moved in to help care for the family. Mary Lee developed a special bond with her grandmother. Grandma Hunt fostered Mary Lee's love of sewing. Mary Lee's mother was later diagnosed with Huntington's Disease.

In high school and at Rick's College, Mary Lee took as many sewing classes as she could. She graduated from Utah State University in Logan, Utah with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1960.

She married Dewayne Jones of Drummond in the Idaho Falls Temple in 1959. They had two children while they lived in Drummond and Idaho Falls, and then they moved their family to Edmonds and Kennewick, Washington where they had three more children. When their marriage ended in divorce, Mary Lee packed up her youngsters and relocated to Pullman, where she earned a Masters' Degree in Textiles and Design from Washington State University in 1973. Her first job after she graduated was as the Home Economist/4-H Agent for the Whitman County Extension Service.

She met, Robert (Bob) Wolf, a 4-H leader and father of six children, who had lost his wife to cancer, and a recent convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They married in 1974, and Mary Lee moved her family to the Wolf farm in Tekoa, Washington. Combining two families was difficult and it took many years, but Mary Lee's consistent love became a beacon to guide all the children she mothered through their lives. She taught the girls to sew and made many prom dresses for the six girls who were still at home.

In 1984, Mary Lee accepted a position with the University of Idaho Cooperative Extension Service for Madison County and returned to Rexburg with Bob and their two youngest children. She ran legendary 4-H Camps and developed innovative programs in financial management, nutrition and health, and food safety.

In 1988, Mary Lee organized and directed the first caregivers workshop in the state. She went on to teach almost 4,500 participants in 185 classes or workshops dedicated to helping meet the needs of Idaho's senior citizens. In 1995, Governor Phil Batt appointed Mary Lee to serve on the State of Idaho Commission on Aging where she represented Eastern Idaho for seven years until her retirement.

The Madison County Commissioners gave Mary Lee a special assignment to honor Idaho's Centennial: return the county courthouse to its original beauty. The courthouse was suffering from years of neglect and half-hearted attempts to modernize the building. Mary Lee chaired a committee of 22 professionals from the community, fund raised, wrote grants, and used her considerable design talents to create the beautified Courthouse we still enjoy to this day.

Mary Lee was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served in many wards and branches. She helped found the Rockford Branch in Washington. She served as a very young Relief Society President in Idaho Falls when Elder John H. Groberg was her bishop.

Robert and Mary Lee were divorced in 1993, and Mary Lee felt like she would spend the rest of her life without an eternal companion.

Mary Lee was serving as a Relief Society advisor for the 23rd Ward at Rick's College (BYU-I). On November 16, 1999, as Mary Lee was hurrying to get to the Idaho Falls temple for the college ward's temple night, she had a spiritual impression come into her mind that she would meet a special man at the temple that night. She arrived at the temple and was eating alone in the dining room when the feeling returned. Moments later, the sister who Mary Lee served with introduced her to Ramon Curtis—and they fell in love. Ramon proposed a few months later in the same temple, and they were sealed there on July 5, 2000. Mary Lee welcomed Ramon's large family into her life.

After they retired in 2003, Mary Lee and Ramon served a mission to the Oakland California Temple Visitor's Center and when the Rexburg Temple opened as temple workers. They enjoyed a blessed marriage until Ramon passed away in 2015.

Mary Lee is survived by her brother Delmar Raybould of Rexburg, ID and her children—Melody Yamauchi of Kamuela, HI; Jim (Elizabeth) of Meggett, SC; Laurie (Neil) Nelson of Keizer, OR; Ken Wolf of Tekoa, WA; Angela (Allen) Morrison of Peoria, AZ; Dan (Nadya) Wolf of Sedona, AZ; Merrily (Robert) Escalante of Kurtistown, HI; Amy (Larry) Archibald of Edmond, OK; Doug (Teresa) Bodily of Rexburg, ID; Lucy (Matt) Ulrich of Mesa, AZ; and David (Jennifer) Wolf of Lacey, WA. She left 34 grandchildren and 47 great grandchildren.

Mary Lee is also survived by Ramon's children: Veral (Suzanne) Curtis of Stevenson, WA; Maureen Curtis of St. George, UT; Thayne (Catherine) Curtis of Meridian, ID; Sheryl Curtis of Phoenix, AZ; Scott (Darla) Curtis of Rigby, ID; and Ramona (Paul) Pearson of Ucon, ID. And 20 more grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren.

Mary Lee was preceded in death by her brother, John Raybould; her husband, Ramon Curtis; her daughter, Holly Bodily; Ramon's daughter, Colleen Halls; and his son, Stanton Curtis; and Ramon's infant twin daughters, Brenda and Glenda.

The family sends tremendous thanks to Bo McCann and Nita Carroll and their wonderful staff at Living Legacy Senior Care Home for taking Mary Lee into their hearts and giving her kind and loving care.

Funeral services will be held in Rexburg on Saturday, December 3rd, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at Flamm Funeral Home, 61 N. 1st E. The family will receive friends that morning from 10:00 a.m. until 10:45 a.m. at the funeral Home. Burial will be in the Rexburg Cemetery.

Services will be streamed at: https://my.gather.app/remember/mary-curtis-2022