Mary Anne Dettman

Mary Anne Dettman, 88, of Twin Lakes Community, Burlington, passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 18, 2018, while surrounded by her family.

A native of Chicago, she was the wife of Larry Dettman, Twin Lakes Community, and the daughter of Mynda J. and Arnold V. Kalm, both deceased.

Mary Anne attended Oberlin College in Ohio, receiving her degree in biology. It is at Oberlin College that she met her husband, Larry, and they were married in the Chicago area. While living there Mary Anne received her teaching certificate through Northwestern University in Evanston, and later taught high school biology.

Early in their marriage, Mary Anne, Larry and their children resided in Minneapolis, Toledo, and Rochester, Michigan. In 1979 they moved to Sanford, North Carolina where they were active community members for twenty years. Mary Anne had a life-long love of music and literature, and her career later in life reflected those passions. For several years she worked as the assistant manager of the Carolina Book Shop in Sanford. Soon after the bookshop closed, she was approached by a colleague to join the staff of the Lee County Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center, where she was program director. All the while she included music in her life by playing the organ and directing the choir for Trinity Lutheran Church. After moving to Twin Lakes Community in 1998, Mary Anne continued making music as organist for both Macedonia Evangelical Lutheran Church in Burlington and Sharon Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gibsonville.

Community service was also an important part of Mary Anne’s life. In the 1990s she was active in the Lutheran Family Services program assisting refugees from Viet Nam to settle in the Sanford area. For fourteen years both she and Larry organized the annual Crop Walk held at Twin Lakes for worldwide hunger relief.

Mary Anne is survived by her husband of sixty years, Larry Dettman of Twin Lakes, her children David (Kim) of Tucson, Beth (John) of Minneapolis, and Steve (Liz) of Portland, Oregon, and five grandchildren, Benjamin, Minda, Noah, Hannah and Ari.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 10, 2018 at the May-Foley Chapel at Twin Lakes Community, with Father Mark Menees and Pastor Richard Goeres presiding.

A reception will immediately follow the service in the Pepper Tree at Twin Lakes Community.

The family gives special thanks to the staff at the Coble Creek Healthcare and Moneta Springs Memory Care facilities at Twin Lakes for the fine care given to Mary Anne.

Rich and Thompson Funeral Home and Crematory in Burlington is assisting the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the BrightFocus Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, 22512 Gateway Center Drive, Clarksburg, MD, 20871, or to the Evelyn S. Apple Scholarship Fund, Twin Lakes Community, 3701 Wade Coble Drive, Burlington, NC, 27215.

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