Maryjean Uppendahl

Maryjean was born on July 26, 1952 in Harare, Zimbabwe (then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia) to American missionaries Martin and Winifred Uppendahl. A traumatic brain injury during birth from her forceps delivery left her developmentally disabled from birth, and with a mis-shaped skull. At age 6 she and her younger brother Daniel moved to a hostel for missionary children to attend a British public school. At the time of her death, she was still communicating regularly with several of the other children she met at that hostel.

When Maryjean was nearly 9, the family returned to the US at the recommendation of the mission organization (TEAM - The Evangelical Alliance Mission), because of the lack of special education options for Maryjean in Rhodesia.

The family first returned to my mother's home city, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Maryjean attended a private special education school initially as a boarding school student. Later the family moved to Comstock Park Michigan where Maryjean lived at home and was picked up for school each day.

Later the family moved to Stamford, Connecticut, where Maryjean attended special education classes at the public high school, and graduated. After then living in Trumbull, Connecticut for several years the family moved briefly to Livingston, Tennessee, then to Anchorage, Alaska.

Maryjean lived in Anchorage for more than 20 years, working at the Anchorage Public Library for most of that time. After her parents retired, they traveled for several years, while Maryjean stayed in Anchorage in her own apartment.

After her parents settled for retirement in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Maryjean joined them there. She first lived with her parents, then in her own apartment, and finally joining her parents in her own apartment at the Go Ye Village retirement community.

Maryjean loved to sew clothes for her dolls, something she spent many hours doing. The other thing Maryjean spent her time on was sending cards. She typically mailed 20-50 birthday and anniversary cards each month as well as occasional encouragement cards. She loved to decorate the envelopes with stickers! Especially missionary families around the world and their families found themselves looking forward to receiving a "card with the stickers", and Maryjean was known for somehow being able to frequently select cards that were appropriate to current circumstances in their lives.

In January 2020 Maryjean was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer. In spite of near miraculous management of the cancer and its tumors for years (many of the tumors on her liver), on June 2nd she succumbed to a failing liver. She leaves two younger brothers, Daniel Hayes Uppendahl of Anahola, Hawaii and "Mickey" Michael Jonathan Uppendahl of Tahlequah, Oklahoma.