MARY (HERHAGER) NICHOLS
an award-winning Michigan Senior Olympian, entered eternal life on Sunday, June 1,2008, at her home in Rochester Hills, Michigan, from the effects of a stroke suffered several years ago. She was 94 years old.
Mary was one of nine children born to the Herhager family in Flat Rock, Michigan. She and her siblings were raised on the family farm.
In 1937, Mary married Chester Nichols who owned a hunting and fishing lodge in Houghton Lake in the northern Lower Peninsula. She helped him in the daily operations of running and managing the lodge. She later worked for several years as a pastry filler at Awrey Bakeries in Detroit.
After Chester entered eternal life in 1976, Mary became very devoted to and involved in physical fitness, walking daily, and running at least two miles a day, three times a week.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Mary became a regular in the Senior Olympic Circuit around the state and country winning many medals and honors as a competitor in running and walking competitions.
In 1987, at the age of 73, Mary won a gold medal in the 1,500-meter walk, and a silver medal in the 1,500-meter run in her age division at the Michigan Senior Olympics. She later won a bronze medal in the 1,500-meter run at the U.S. National Senior Olympics in St. Louis that same year.
Her daughter, Christine Wells Mazzarella, said of her mother, "Not only was she an excellent role model for older people to exercise, eat well, and live a healthy lifestyle, but she was a great motivator for everyone in general."
Mary was also an avid baker and craft maker, and she enjoyed traveling the world.
Mary is survived by her daughter, Christine Wells Mazzarella; another daughter, Stephanie Goodrich; three sisters; four grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
Visitation: Thursday, June 5, 2008 preceding the mass at 9:30 a.m.
Service: Funeral Mass, Thursday June 5, 2008 at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, 3400 S. Adams Road, Auburn Hills.
Burial will be in the Michigan Memorial Cemetery in Flat Rock.
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