Mary Frances Dove was born on September 27, 1931, in Holden, Missouri — the 6th and youngest child of Journal Alber Dove and Mae Lorena Smith. When she was three years old, her father died, leaving her mother to provide for the family by milking cows and working in a shirt factory. In 1937, Mae married Edward Toble and became the only father Mary ever knew. She remembered going to a one-room school with eight students. She and her siblings were half of the class. At home, the family cooked and heated with a wood stove, and their water came from a well. They went to town twice a year for flour and sugar. Her mom made dresses for Mary and shirts for her brothers. They went to school barefooted until the weather became too cold. They lived off the animals they raised and the fruits and vegetables they grew and canned. In 1935, their family, along with a large extended family, moved from Missouri to Washington in search of work and a better life. They eventually moved to a 160 acre farm near Roy, Washington. As soon as she was old enough, Mary went to work in the hop fields, and in the fall she worked in the Christmas trees. One fateful day, a young 6-foot 4-inch cowboy brought in a load of trees. He eventually went to work in the tree yard and they formed a friendship. She was especially impressed with him when he gently broke a horse that no one else was able to break. That's when she decided he was her boyfriend. They did some out-of-season hunting and fishing, which provided them with some tasty food. Soon Leland was going back to Utah to work on a dry farm and asked her to marry him. She thought he was kidding and said, "Sure, I will." He said, "I meant it." When she was done working in the hops, she bought a train ticket, and with a permission note from her mother, she made the trip to Utah. They were married on August 15, 1949. She wasn't yet eighteen, and he was only nineteen. They lived on a ranch in Park Valley, Utah, which is fifty miles from anywhere. They stayed there until the round-up was done, went back to Washington briefly, and then went back to Utah. Estella was born in 1950 in Brigham City (Utah), Steven was born in 1952 in Puyallup (Washington), and the remaining children were born in Olympia (Washington) — Beth in 1954, Wayne in 1955, Donna in 1957, and Paul in 1959. Six kids in nine years! Mary took the kids to Sunday School at whatever church was close. One time, Stella came home and told her dad what she had learned in Sunday School that day. He said he didn't want them going to that church any longer because they didn't teach the truth. Mary said if he wanted the kids to go to the Mormon Church, he would need to take them, and she would go with them. Mary and Stella were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on July 6, 1960. They were sealed as a family on July 17, 1961 in the Logan Utah Temple. In the spring of 1962, Leland quit his job, cashed out his retirement, bought a truck, and moved to Ashton, Idaho, to work with his brother, Dwight, in the timber business. Soon, Mary was working alongside him in the family business. Eventually, they moved to Coulee City, Washington, bought a bigger truck, and hauled grain. After a while, Leland got a job at LambWeston in Connell, Washington, working as a mechanic. At this time, Shawna, Kathy, and Sandy came to live with them. They loved these girls and were happy to have them. Leland's health began to fail, and he quit working. Soon after, he passed away on March 17, 1997. Mary then moved with Shawna and PJ to Wendell, Idaho; Enterprise, Oregon; and White Salmon, Washington, where she got her own apartment. Eventually, she moved to Kennewick, where she lived her last few years until she passed away on Tuesday, December 15, 2020.