Mary Lou (Taylor) Hanson (2019)

COTTON, CRAWFORD, HANSON, LANNERS, PETERSEN, TAYLOR

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:03:15

Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa

Mary Lou Hanson, 92, passed away on April 25, 2019. Mary Lou was born April 14, 1927, in Omaha, Neb., to Platt and Mibbs (Crawford) Taylor. She grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, graduating from Roosevelt High School. She attended and graduated from Iowa State University and was a member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority. While at Iowa State she met Dick Hanson, which turned into 70 years of marriage.

While living in Des Moines, Mary Lou enjoyed volunteering and for many years worked with the Des Moines Convention Bureau as well as transcribing books into braille for the blind. She loved the outdoors and she and Dick enjoyed canoe trips in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada, tent camping vacations with their children across the United States, Iowa State University basketball, playing bridge with her Pi Beta Phi sisters and hosting many tours with Dick around the world sponsored by Meredith Corporation’s Successful Farming Magazine.

In 1973 they bought 57 acres near Winterset, Iowa, had a new house designed and built, and began life in their own little paradise. One of her accomplishments she was most proud of was the 30-acre tall grass prairie, a “labor-of-love” product. She and Dick began converting a creek bottom farm field to a warm season tall-grass prairie environment in the mid-1980s. The Hansons donated their prairie (Hanson Prairie Preserve) to the Madison County Foundation for Environmental Education (MCFEE).

Mary Lou was preceded in death by her parents; and an infant son, Drew.

Mary Lou is survived by her husband, Dick; children: Dirk (Kathryn) Hanson of Ely, Minn., Kim (Harold) Petersen of Cumming and Chip (Valerie) Hanson of Ely, Minn.; sister and brother-in-law: Carole Lea (Taylor) and John Cotton of Spencer, Iowa; grandsons, Peter and Drew of Seattle; niece, Deb (Cotton) Lanners of Minnetonka, Minn.; and nephews, Dave Cotton of Spokane, Wash., and Daniel Cotton of Overland Park, Kan.

Per Lou’s request her body was cremated and no funeral services will be held. Their family will be having a celebration of her life at a future date. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Ely Folk School, or EveryStep Hospice.

Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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