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Mary Dunbar Deas of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania died surrounded by her loving family in Lankenau Hospital after a brief illness. She was 86. Mary’s husband of fifty-two years was Thomas C. Deas, MD who had been Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology at Temple University when he died in 1995. Mary and Tom both came from families that had for generations settled in and around Augusta, Georgia. Mary was a graduate of the Augusta State University and had been a member of its Alumni Society. They were married in Augusta during World War II in 1943 when Tom was attending the Medical College of Georgia under the sponsorship of the U.S. Navy. Mary accompanied Tom to numerous duty stations on the East Coast during his twenty-year career as a navy doctor. She was an active volunteer with the American Red Cross chapters providing patient care at the naval hospitals where her late husband served. She returned to Augusta to care for their two children during Tom’s Korean War service aboard a U.S. Navy hospital ship in 1950 and 1951. Mary remained active in the USS Consolation Reunion Committee of which her late husband was a founding member. Their last navy posting was to the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia and it was from there that they moved to Lower Merion Township in 1963 when Tom was appointed to Temple University’s faculty. Mary had been active in the Temple University Hospital Auxiliary, the Philadelphia County Medical Society Alliance, the Women’s Committee of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and the Montgomery County Medical Alliance. Mary valued family very highly and was unfailingly diligent at keeping ties strong among a growing extended family that spread far from Augusta, Georgia. She shared her late husband’s interest in genealogy and was a member of the Augusta Genealogical Society, the Georgia Historical Society, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Lower Merion Historical Society. She cherished and helped compile for her descendents an extensive family history. Her third great-grandfather in her father’s lineage was William Dunbar, an early settler on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River Valley across from Augusta, Georgia. He was a noted patriot of the Revolution, having served as Assistant Commissioner to the Indians for the Province of South Carolina during the Revolutionary War and as a member of the South Carolina legislative bodies that ratified the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. On her mother’s side, she was a direct descendant of the South Carolina Davis clan that included Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. Her fourth great-grandfather was Captain Samuel Davis of the South Carolina Continentals, who was wounded during the Revolutionary War battle to recapture Savannah from the British in October 1779. Mary was an active member for 45 years of Overbrook Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia where she had been ordained a Deacon, served as a member of the Women’s Circle and led and participated in numerous committees. Sharing her late husband’s interest, Mary took great pride in designing and meticulously maintaining her extensive garden. She was active in the Garden Club of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Mary was also a member of the Wynnewood Civic Association and the Owen and Wister Roads Neighborhood Association. She is survived by her daughter Mary Ashley Deas of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, her son Thomas C. Deas, Jr. of Haverford, Pennsylvania and four grandchildren. She is also survived by her three sisters, Eleanor Dunbar Shevlin of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania; Caroline Dunbar Kinsey; and Frances Dunbar Odom, both of Montgomery, Alabama; and numerous nieces and nephews. A viewing and memorial service for Mary’s family and many friends to celebrate and give thanks for her long and good life will be held at Sunday afternoon, September 30, 2007 at Overbrook Presbyterian Church, City and Lancaster Avenues in Philadelphia. The viewing will begin at 2 o’clock in the sanctuary followed immediately by the memorial service at 3 o’clock. Mary will be laid to rest alongside her late husband in Arlington National Cemetery. Donations may be made in Mary’s memory to the General Endowment Fund of Overbrook Presbyterian Church; 6376 City Avenue; Philadelphia, PA 19151 (www.overbrookpresby.org) or the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society; 875 N. Randolph Street, Suite 225; Arlington, VA 22203-1977 (www.nmcrs.org). Arrangements have been made through Chadwick & McKinney in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

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Mary Dunbar Deas

August 11, 1921 - September 27, 2007