Mary Louise Weathers

Mary Louise Weathers of Peterborough died on January 13th at the age of 98, surrounded by her family.

Born November 27, 1926, she was the daughter of Leo Rollin McGinnis and Margaret Ann Morrison. Her father was a logger/sawmill operator with deep family roots in New Salem Mass, and her mother, a nurse, was born and raised on Port Hood Island, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Though a logger by profession, Mary Louise’s father was an expert horseman and competed successfully in horse-pulling competitions at local and regional fairs. In 1941 when Mary Louise was fourteen years old, her father drowned in a local pond near his sawmill where he had been storing timber downed in the 1938 hurricane. As the family rallied from this tragedy and its aftermath, Mary Louise, the oldest sibling, learned to project the kind of upbeat, optimistic, and supportive attitude that became a central characteristic of her personality.

Mary Louise attended New Salem Academy from which she graduated in 1944. She went on to graduate from Becker Jr. College and did secretarial work in Concord NH for the Director of Youth Education at the New Hampshire Congregational Conference. It was in Concord that she met her future husband, Robert D. Weathers, who had just returned home from military service in the Pacific theater of World War II. After marriage in 1948, the couple moved to Boston where Bob Weathers attended Tufts Dental School and Mary Louise took a job as Secretary to the Vice President of the American Unitarian Association. In 1951, they moved to Peterborough and started a family which eventually included two daughters and a son. In 2021, they celebrated their 73rd anniversary.

A dedicated and proud mother and grandmother, Mary Louise always put family first, providing unwavering and unconditional support for her children and grandchildren. In her later years, she could often be heard insisting that her “grandchildren were perfect.”

Mary Louise was a long time and active member of All Saints’ Church. She was one of the original founders of the Serendipity Shop where she served in many capacities, most recently taking responsibility for the window displays. She also served on the Altar Guild for many years. 

Mary Louise maintained a healthy and active lifestyle. Her interests included gardening, reading, tennis, and ballroom dancing. For her entire life, she would become visibly animated by the sound of big band dance music, as well the swing rhythms of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and, of course, Frank Sinatra. Together with her husband, she was a charter member of the Monadnock Tennis Club in Peterborough. A regular season subscriber of the Peterborough Players, she was an active member of the “In the Wings” support group.

Predeceased by her father (1896-1941), her mother (1891-1970), son-in-law Marlon Mister (1955-2018); her younger brother, Paul Owen McGinnis (1930-2018); and her husband Robert Day Weathers (1924-2021) she is survived by a daughter, Anne Weathers Ritchie and her husband, Robert, of Freeport Maine; a daughter, Joan Mister of Waterloo Iowa, and a son Alan D. Weathers and his wife, Lulu, of Peterborough. She leaves two grandchildren, Sally Bacon Weathers of Brooklyn NY, and Nora Walker Weathers of Boulder Colorado, and many nieces, nephews and their families.

The family would like to express their appreciation for the incredible staff in the Memory Care unit at Scott Farrar where she resided for the past several years, as well as the EMT/ambulance crew who helped the family navigate her final hours.

A memorial service to celebrate the lives of both Bob and Mary Louise Weathers will be held at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Concord Street, Peterborough on April 26, 2025. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to All Saints Church and/or the Peterborough Players.