Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I dedicate this week’s newsletter to my late mom who passed away peacefully this past Thursday with my brother Oliver and his family by her side.
Mary Clementine Ternes (1936-2024)
The family of Mary Clementine Ternes is sad to announce her passing on September 19, 2024 at the age of 88 in Beverly Hills, California from the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Mary Ternes was born February 22nd, 1936 in Detroit, Michigan to Peter Ignatius Ternes and Vera Rosina (Boush) Ternes. She was welcomed home by her brothers Charles (Chuck) Lewis Ternes and Alan Paul Ternes.
Mary is survived by her sons, Andrew (Andy) Marlin Jones of Davis, California, as well as Andy’s wife, Kate, and their three children, Geneva, Jackson (Jukie), and Truman; and Oliver Marlin Jones of Los Angeles, California, as well as Oliver’s wife Sarah and their daughter, Clementine. Oliver, Sarah, and Clementine hosted Mary through the Coronavirus lockdown in 2020 before she moved to Sunrise Assisted Living of Beverly Hills.
An independent spirit from her earliest years, Mary spent much of her childhood reading with and next to her mother, Vera; taking long drives with her father, Pete; and swimming and socializing at the Turnverein Center in Detroit, Michigan. Starting in the 1950s, Mary took yearly trips to the family ancestral home of Beavertown, Pennsylvania to spend time at the Lazy Bones cabin that her mom bought for $1,500. There she got to spend time on adventures with her beloved Aunt Lilah, as well as with her Aunt Eunice, Uncle Anson, and Aunt Lucile, and her many cousins, including Lilah’s daughters Honey and Susie.
Mary attended Wayne State University and Stephens College and majored in Anthropology at Michigan State University, where President Harry S Truman was her commencement speaker. She then traveled to Nigeria and Senegal where she worked on water, sanitation, and community development projects, a trip that had a profound impact on the rest of her life.
Mary moved to New York City where she lived with her brother, Alan, while earning her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Columbia University, and met her future husband, Davey Marlin-Jones. Mary and Davey married in December, 1962, opting to watch the David Lean epic film Lawrence of Arabia on their wedding day.
Mary and Davey moved to Washington, D.C. in 1965 where Davey became the artistic director of the Washington Theatre Club, and where Mary began work at the Central Public Library, moving with the library’s collection to The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the central facility of the District of Columbia Public Library, in 1972. For the next 30 years, Mary served the readers of Washington, D.C. as a children’s librarian, an art librarian, and a Washingtoniana librarian. She helped to organize and curate the donated Washington Star collection, maintaining a remarkable memory of the location of the millions of images in the Washington Star photo morgue. After retiring from the downtown library, Mary worked as a florist and as a librarian for the National School Boards Association.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Mary and her Glover Park friend Ginger MacKaye helped to host literary and political salons with large groups of connected women in Washington, D.C. While forming many close friendships, Mary welcomed authors such as Anais Nin, Nikki Giovanni, and Alice Walker. During this time, she also pursued her hobbies of writing poetry, creating abstract textile art creations, and painting. (Mary considered Ginger’s youngest child, Amanda MacKaye of Alexandria, Virginia to be like a daughter.)
A spiritual seeker since the nuns kicked out of Communion class at age 10 for asking too many questions, Mary attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a center for civil rights and protest, in the 1960s and 1970s. Later becoming a Buddhist, Mary learned to meditate and to chant in India, working and praying alongside Buddhist nuns who attended to the dying and the dead.
Mary’s marriage to Davey Marlin-Jones ended in divorce in 1977. She sold their Glover Park home in 1989, subsequently sampling D.C. art, music, and restaurant culture in the Adams Morgan and Waterfront neighborhoods, where over the last decade she was a vibrant part of the social scene from the bar at Station Four to water yoga classes at the Y.
Mary Ternes traveled to Europe on the ill-fated SS Andrea Doria in the 1950s; practiced lines with Billy Dee Williams, John Hillerman, and many other actors in the 1960s; dined at the Ford White House in the 1970s; served on the board of Independent Living for the Handicapped in the 1980s through the 2020s; had an audience with The Dalai Lama in India in the 2000s; and then returned to her love of theatre as a volunteer at Arena Stage in the 2010s.
As one might expect from a librarian, Mary read thousands of books, filling notebooks with the names of authors, the ideas, and the words that she looked forward to investigating further. Mary agreed with James Baldwin who said, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
A private family ceremony to celebrate Mary Clementine Ternes has been planned in Los Angeles, followed by a later ceremony in Beavertown, where her remains will be buried in the family plot next to her mother. Gifts in Mary’s memory are encouraged to The Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation of Fargo, North Dakota.
Mary was an excellent cook and an avid collector of cookbooks; she loved nothing more than drinking beer and coffee with friends and family, finished off (or more likely, started off) by dessert— preferably Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey. Towards to end of her life, as her words began to fail her, the staff at Sunrise Beverly Hills, to whom her family remains incredibly grateful, would ask her if she wanted some ice cream, to which she would inevitably reply, “Always.”
Please plan to partake in the Pub Quiz festivities this pleasant and not overheated evening at Sudwerk in Davis. Bring your team to the beautiful outdoor patio where the misters are misting and where we have room for almost everyone. The jollity will be unfiltered. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. We filled the restaurant and patio last week, and I expect that we will continue to do so throughout the school year and beyond. Also, tonight I plan to move the quiz along quickly — the entire quiz is only 867 words long!
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on data centers, long nouns, emperors, U.S. states, chocolate, oceans, combined teams, petty fools, tennis stars, swing states, characters named Jason, genetics, breakfast cereals, oxygen, parts of populous countries, European philosophers, Tik-Tok coinages, the exception to apes, religious questions, Pennsylvania, GenAI, population declines, neon piñatas, eras, flight pioneers, poets named Juna, South Korean challenges, the U.S. Army, time travel evidence, natural objects, catchy musicals, California cities, retailers, nerd accomplishments, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks especially to new subscribers Janet, Joey, Carly, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank, such as Sophie. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
- Broadway Musicals. The first musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein shares a name with what U.S. state?
- State Capitals. What is the odd number of states whose state capitals start with the letter A?
- Pop Culture – Music. What LA-based alternative rock band is canceling the remainder of its tour after lead singer Perry Farrell was seen punching guitarist Dave Navarro at a Boston concert on Friday?