Mary Harris:
CLASS OF 1966
Rio Linda High SchoolClass of 1966
Rio linda, CA
Mary's Story
Mary Johnson/Harris is not currently married. My ex-husband passed away in November 2001. We have three grown children, 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. I enjoy attending my grand-children's school and sports activities. In the seventies I attended Kenneth's College of Hairstyling and obtained my Business Degree in Cosmetology, studied at American River College, and I'm a local business owner of Mary's Hair Salon from 1983 and currently Sim-Retired. In 2012, Rio Linda held a Centennial Celebration with over three thousand people coming out to celebrate the history of Rio Linda. I became the Coordinator for the Miss Rio Linda Pageant. The event was successful beyond all expectations thanks to a total community effort! The Rio Linda and Elverta community are still talking about what a great time they had and are asking that we continue to hold an annual community event of the same magnitude. So, in partnership with the Rio Linda Elverta Recreation/Park District and the Foundation for the Future, the community held its first annual Rio Linda Elverta Country Faire on September 14, 2013 in which I was their entertainment Coordinator.
Some History and background of my community involvement:
In 1999 I became involved in politics, formed the Committee for Responsible Affordable Water and in November of 2002 through 2010 I was elected to the Rio Linda Elverta Community Water District Board of Directors. My mission of better accountability, transparency and communication by letting the ratepayers know where their money is being spent led to a backlash (from special interest groups) that would test my resolve in ways I never expected. In addition to serving in this important position, I served on a committee to explore public health issues concerning the drinking water and how extensive the exposure from McClellan' contamination is to the community.
2005-2010 I was appointed by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to serve on the Sacramento Groundwater Authority (SGA) Board of Directors. The Sacramento Groundwater Authority (SGA) is a joint power authority created to collectively manage the groundwater basin, underlying Sacramento County north of the American River. 2005 - 2009 I served as a RL/E Community Planning Commissioner. Currently I serve on the Rio Linda/Elverta Visions Task Force Committee.
Prior to my election in the late seventies and eighties I served on the Sacramento Hairdressers Guild Board of Directors; Since 1993 and currently I'm a volunteer for an organization that distributes gifts, food and clothing to over 300 disadvantaged families in the Sacramento area. Secondly, I have provided my services as a hairdresser for the homeless program, Family Promise, held at the Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Linda. I enjoy family, friends, dancing, traveling, fishing...etc.
Mrs. Edna Duncan is my hero. Note the newspaper artical below
A friendship that lasted a lifetime By Anita Creamer - Bee Columnist Published (2007)
Edna Duncan knocked on the door the day before Mary Johnson turned 8. On a mission from her fellow Methodist church ladies in Elverta that afternoon in 1955, Mrs. Duncan -- Mary always called her that through the more than 50 years of friendship -- arrived at the family's doorstep with flowers and food and a willingness to make a difference. ...Expand for more
And she did. "Everybody here knew the history of this lady," says Mary Johnson Harris. "When she passed, I called students who'd been in our 4-H group at Elverta Elementary School. One guy said, 'Everything in my life, I owe to that lady.' "That's true for all of us. Every first event that ever happened in my life, she was there." Starting with the first birthday party she ever had, the next day at school. Mrs. Duncan brought the cake to Mary's third-grade classroom and lit the candles. The class sang "Happy Birthday." And an 8-year-old girl from a sprawling Elverta farm family that struggled to make ends meet learned what it was to have something to celebrate.
When you're one of a dozen siblings, you're not always singled out as special. But in countless ways over the years, Edna Duncan let the Johnson children know that they were.
She died in Auburn on July 21 at the age of 94. "People need these kind of people," says Harris, now 60 and the longtime owner of Mary's Hair Salon in Rio Linda. "If more children had a Mrs. Duncan or anybody like her in their lives who really cared, we'd have more happy and healthy adults." Maybe the moral of our story today is quite simple: When you decide to set an example -- to make a difference in someone else's life -- you can end up leaving a lasting legacy.
Years after they met, after the 8-year-old grew up and had children of her own, Mrs. Duncan told her that she and her husband, a college professor who owned property in Elverta, had talked about adopting Mary and sending her to college. "I told my mother that late in her life, and she said, 'If they'd approached me about that, they never would have seen you again,'" says Harris. Family is family, no matter what.
But what we learn about life and how to live it can come from anyone who takes the time to care. Edna Duncan had children of her own, two daughters. She grew up on a Wyoming ranch and earned a master's degree in plant genetics. She led 4-H groups, and she volunteered, and over time, lots of people's children ended up thinking of her as their grandmother. She was always pleased that so many of her gardeners -- her 4-H members -- stayed in touch with her, says Harris. "She geared us in the right direction," she says. "You don't realize it at the time.
"I'd been married for 28 years, and when I got divorced, I went into counseling, because I hadn't explored too much. The counselor asked me who it was in my life who'd been instrumental in making sure my life was different. "It was Mrs. Duncan. She was the person who had faith in me to excel in life. He said, 'You run and thank that woman for what she did for you.'"
One of the things she learned from Mrs. Duncan is that lots of people lead hard lives. The point is to overcome. "That's what molds us," says Harris. "I'm a scrapper, but I just do what Mrs. Duncan did. That's what she taught me."
In 2002, Harris was elected as a director of the Rio Linda Elverta Community Water District, and she's also serving as Director on the Sacramento Groundwater Authority Board of Directors. She volunteers in Rio Linda, too -- giving haircuts to the homeless, for example, and delivering gifts and meals to disadvantaged families during the holiday season. "That's my way of paying back," she says. "It's because of people like Mrs. Duncan that I do it."
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