Mary Kathryn Rank

Mary Kathryn Rank, 93, of the Wil­low­brook Com­mu­nity in Delaware passed away Thurs­day (Oct. 25, 2012) at Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal after a heart attack.

She was born on May 24, 1919, in New­com­er­stown to the late Grover and Nan (Mor­ris) Portz. After grad­u­at­ing from the New­com­er­stown High School, she briefly attended The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity and served in the U.S. Navy as a Wave dur­ing World War II. As a life­long home­maker her life cen­tered on the activ­i­ties of her fam­ily, specif­i­cally rais­ing her chil­dren and being involved in their lives. She was a devoted band and choir mother. She moved to the Delaware Wil­low­brook Chris­t­ian Vil­lage Com­mu­nity in the mid 1990s from from New­com­er­stown. An avid fan of The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity, she fol­lowed and sup­ported the Buckeye’s through thick and thin. Her home even con­tained a ded­i­cated Buck­eye themed room. With a feisty and spir­ited per­son­al­ity, she was one you could always count on. She had a good sense of humor and enjoyed solv­ing jig saw and word search puz­zles. She enjoyed a deeply spe­cial and sup­port­ive rela­tion­ship with her daugh­ter, whom she con­sid­ered her soul mate. They trav­eled exten­sively together on their annual jour­neys. At the age of 91, they trav­eled the Blue Ridge Park­way from top to bot­tom all 500 miles.

She is sur­vived by her daugh­ter, Nancy Rank of Hilliard, and numer­ous friends.

In 1989 she was pre­ceded in death by her beloved hus­band of 42 years, Charles R. Rank; her son, Bruce in 1975; as well as a brother, Robert Portz.

Friends may call from 2 to 5 p.m. Sun­day at the Snyder-Rodman Funeral Cen­ter, 1510 W. William St. at Val­ley­side Drive in Delaware, where ser­vices will be held at 11 a.m. Mon­day. Grave­side com­mit­tal ser­vices will fol­low at 3 p.m. at the Cadiz Union Cemetery.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions can be made to the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion, 1379 Dublin Road, Colum­bus, OH 43215 or the Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion, 937 High St., Wor­thing­ton, OH 43085.

Con­do­lences may be expressed at snyderfuneralhomes.com. “How firm thy friendship….OHIO.”

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Oct 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.