Mary Gansman

Mary Lou Gansman "1924-2013" Canton, Mary Lou Gansman, age 89, passed away on Saturday, December 28, 2013 at Haywood Lodge and Retirement Center. A native of Gate, Oklahoma, she was the daughter of the late LeRoy "Babe" and Frances Walden McLeod. She was also preceded in death by her husband of 66 years, Roland J. Gansman as well as one brother, Julius McLeod and one sister, Ellen Yock. Mary Lou was raised during the "Dirty Thirties" in the vast plains of Oklahoma and Kansas. As a child, she began to develop a fondness for music. She loved listening to her mother play the piano and her father the trombone. While attending high school, she entered and won a singing contest, with the prize being free voice lessons at the University of Wichita. This serendipitous event would eventually lead to Mary Lou attending the university and also meeting the love of her life and future husband, Roland, while both attending the same classical music class. After the war, she and Roland settled in Wheaton, Illinois to raise their family. Mary Lou never lost her love of music, participating in community and church choirs. She also enjoyed reading and traveling around the world with loving family. She is survived by two daughters, Susan Chummers and her husband, Paul, of San Jose, California and Dona Baucom and her husband, Everett, of Canton, North Carolina; seven grandchildren, Michael, Colin and Matthew Chummers, Laura Hossain, Kirsten Earley, Sarah Baucom and Alyssa Ely; and three great-grandchildren, Eva and Josiah Earley and Stella Hossain. Mary Lou will be placed next to her husband in a private ceremony at the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain. Wells Funeral Homes & Cremation Services of Waynesville is in charge of arrangements.