Mary Estelle Jamieson Wallace

Mary Estelle Jamieson Wallace passed away on April 26, 2015.

Mary was born April 20, 1937, to Clark and Marion Jamieson of Wayne, MI. She was a valedictorian at Wayne Memorial High School in 1955. A 1959 graduate of The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA., she was managing editor of the weekly newspaper, The Flat Hat.

She earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Michigan in 1962. She married Victor L. Wallace June 23, that year in Ann Arbor. She was government and court reporter for The Ann Arbor News from 1962 to 1969.

After they moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1969, where Vic joined the University of North Carolina faculty, she became the Orange County bureau chief for the Durham Herald and Sun newspapers, reporting on Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough until 1976.

In Lawrence, she began teaching news reporting in the KU School of Journalism in fall 1977, and became assistant to the dean, serving under 4 deans, beginning in 1980. She retired in summer 2008, after 31 years at KU.

In Lawrence, she was a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for a child in foster care for eight years, attended the Lawrence Police Department’s Citizens Academy, and since retirement has been volunteer archivist at the Watkins Community Museum of History.

The couple were members of Plymouth Congregational Church.

Mary and Victor have two sons, Robert of Emporia, KS and Andrew of Concord. NC; and two granddaughters, Abigail and Delaney in North Carolina. Mary’s brother Thomas Jamieson lives in Belleville, Michigan with his wife Ann.

There will be a celebration of Mary’s remarkable life of compassion and professionalism at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, May 23, 2015 at Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence KS. For more information go to warrenmcelwain.com.

Memorials may be made in Mary’s name to the Lawrence Humane Society, or Douglas County Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice and may be sent in care of the Mortuary.