Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Harden, Mary Margaret 1964
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Carson City Gazette, 13 Feb 1964

Carson Educator Killed In Collision Near Greenville

The Carson City community, along with the educational profession of the state,
suffered a tragic loss Thursday morning of last week when Miss Mary Harden, 77,
was killed instantly in a car-truck collision 4 ½ miles east of Greenville, on
M-57.  According to Montcalm county sheriff’s officers, who investigated the
accident, Miss Harden was westbound when she apparently lost control of her car
on a curve and crashed head-on into an eastbound Kamp-Devries Tire Co. truck
driven by Richard Lawens, 31, of R-3, Greenville.  Miss Harden was alone in her
car, en route to Grand Rapids.  The accident occurred at about 9:50 a.m.

Lawens and a passenger, Jerry DeVries, 32, of Grand Rapids, where both injured,
not critically.  Devries was transferred to a Grand Rapids hospital.  Lawens
told sheriff’s officers that he and DeVries saw Miss Harden fighting for control
of her car just before the impact.  He said he swerved his truck toward the
right shoulder but was unable to avoid the collision.  Both car and truck were
demolished.

Miss Harden was born at Hubbardston, December 11, 1886, and came to Carson City
with her parents, the late William and Mary Ellen Harden, when about six years
old.  She attended Carson City high school, graduating in 1906, and held
Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from Teachers College, Columbia
University, New York.  She taught in Michigan elementary and high schools,
including South High in Grand Rapids, and was a former instructor in education
at Eastern Illinois State Teachers College at Charleston and State Teachers
College at New Haven, Conn.

From 1930 to 1943 served as Director of Curriculum, Horace Mann School, Teachers
College, Columbia University.  She also taught summer sessions at Central
Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, for three years.  From 1943 until her
retirement in 1956 she served as director of elementary education for the Wayne
(Michigan) public school system.  Upon retirement she returned to make her home
in Carson City.

Author of several magazine articles on education, she also co-authored a United
States history book for junior high school students.  She was a member of the
Educational Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, a member of
the Department of Public Instruction Committee on Elementary Education, and the
Michigan Reading Association and its committee for “Action Research in the
Classroom.”  She was also a member of the Carson City Library board and the St.
Mary’s Altar Society of Carson City.

She was an alternate delegate from the eighth district to the 1960 Democratic
National Convention at Los Angeles, and was active in local and state Democratic
circles.  In 1960 she was the party’s unsuccessful candidate for Representative
in Congress from the eighth district.

Funeral services were held from St. Mary’s Catholic Church here at 10 a.m.
Monday, with Rev. Ralph Kelly, pastor of the church, officiating.  Interment was
in St. John the Baptist Catholic cemetery at Hubbardston.  Arrangements were in
charge of the Burns Funeral Home of Carson City.

Surviving are two brothers, Louis W. of Cedar Springs and Clare of Carson City,
a niece, Mary Ellen, and nephew, Dennis, of Carson City.


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