Mary Jane Honey, of Darby, passed away peacefully of natural causes at Daly Hospital in Hamilton, Montana on the afternoon of Sunday, March 19th, 2023. She was 97 years old. Services will be at 2:00pm on Sunday, June 11th at the Darby First Baptist Church.
Mary Jane Honey was born Mary Jane Logan on October 26th, 1925, in O’Fallon, Illinois to Bernard Joseph and Julie Lebegue Logan. After attending and graduating from O’Fallon High School, she went to Baptist Missionary Training School – a four-year college in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated in 1948 with her B.A. in Bible Studies and a Social Studies minor. While in college, she taught religious education in the Chicago Public Schools and led Vacation Bible School in rural southern Ohio. Mary Jane was commissioned as a missionary by the American Baptist Convention (then called the Northern Baptist Convention) and in the spring of 1949, she accepted a call to serve as the Christian Education Director and Assistant Minister for the Bitterroot Larger Parish which included Darby, Victor, and Stevensville Baptist Churches.
In 1950, Mary Jane and Robert Kerlee were married in the Darby First Baptist Church. They had two sons, David Leroy, and Eugene Joseph. In 1954, Robert Kerlee passed away, and Mary Jane went back to school at Western Montana College in Dillon to get her B.S. in Education. She taught school at the Baker Creek school up the West Fork of the Bitterroot, in Hamilton at Jefferson School for three years, and at Darby Elementary School where she retired after 23 years as a teacher. Her years teaching 1st grade in Darby were a real blessing to her.
On December 24th, 1963, Mary Jane Kerlee and Lowell R. Honey were married in the First Baptist Church in Darby. Lowell had three grown sons of his own (Ray, Paul, and Robert), and adopted Mary Jane’s two young sons (David and Gene) after they were married. Mary Jane and Lowell enjoyed traveling. They traveled in all but a few of the states including Alaska and Hawaii, and also traveled to Mexico, England, other countries in Europe including countries in the Mediterranean, and the Holy Land. In her earlier years she enjoyed sewing and during World War II in her high school years she was part of a group that sewed army tents in East St. Louis, Illinois. She also enjoyed camping trips, working in her yard, growing flowers, and canning the fruits and vegetables that Lowell grew in the garden. She also volunteered as a driver for patients who needed transportation. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Darby, the Connor TOPS club, Women’s Wednesday Bowling League, and mixed bowling teams with her husband, Lowell. After Lowell passed away in 1993, Mary Jane took Hospice Training and became a Hospice volunteer in the Marcus Daly program.
She is survived by her son, Gene Honey, stepson Paul G. (Kathy) Honey of Darby, MT and his children Sadie (Zach) Honey of Denver and Rose Honey of Missoula, Mary Dell (Gary) Honey and her children Wade (Dorothea) Honey of Missoula, Stann Honey of Darby, and Tanya Honey of Olympia, Washington, Dean Kessler (the son of Robert Honey) of South Carolina, and numerous great grandchildren, nieces, and nephews throughout the U.S. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Robert Kerlee, husband Lowell Ray Honey, son David L. Honey, stepsons L. Ray Honey, and Robert Dean (Georgia) Honey, and her brothers and sister John, Francis, Harry, and Marie. She will be buried in Lone Pine Cemetery in Darby, MT.