Mary Lou Shryock

Mary Lou Shryock, age 93, passed away on Sunday, January 9, 2022 at Shorehaven Health Center. She was born on October 8, 1928 to Clarence Johnson and Pearl Bunch in Canton, Illinois. Mary Lou is survived by her daughter, Jeri Lu Holschbach; granddaughters, Ricci (Aboubakarim Ndaw) Shryock, Jessica (Max Bauer) Holschbach, Leah (Patrick Procter-Brown) Holschbach, Roxi (Pape Ibrahima) Diallo, Mary Alexandra Holschbach; great-grandchildren, Amelia, Lola, Jacob, Abby Rose, Olivia Salone, Madelyn, Nolan, Lincoln; sister-in-law, Vicki Sweargin; and daughter-in-law, Beth Shryock. She is preceded in death by her husband, Alfred “Jerry” Shryock; her parents; her son, Rick Shryock; and son-in-law, Dean Holschbach. Born in Cuba, Illinois, Mary Lou attended school in Canton, Illinois. There she met and married the love of her life, Jerry Shryock in 1950. She went on to further her education earning a Bachelor and then Masters degree from Western Illinois University, where Jerry was a math professor for many years. Mary Lou began her teaching career at V.I.T., where she eventually became principal. Afterward she went on to become the first librarian at a newly built Macomb High School. She and her husband were avid travelers, starting with cross-country camping family trips driving trips in a Volkswagen Beetle. Mary Lou and Jerry traveled to many countries with their children, and then grandchildren. She made friends everywhere she went. Lifelong friends included the dedicated Crazy Eight Bridge Club. The friends she made were so dear to her. She loved playing bridge, Patsy Cline, reading, traveling with her husband, Jerry and most of all her children and grandchildren. Her titles of mother and grandmother were perhaps the ones that brought her the most joy. For her five granddaughters she built a world of adventure, learning, laughter, love, and strength that shaped their lives in immeasurable ways. She taught them to devour books, to love learning, and to savor the path less traveled. They will remember her for the trips to the ocean, to Bourbon Street, to the Trevi Fountain in Rome and more. But no place was as special as Grandma and Grandpa’s home at 70 Lake Michael in Macomb - a place where countless beautiful childhood memories were made and where they always felt safe and loved. With this, Mary Lou gave them the greatest and most enduring gift anyone can give a child. She may be gone, but her voice and her wise words to her five granddaughters - “Don’t forget girls, you can do anything as well as a boy except for pee standing up.,” will echo and live on for years to come. Toward her later years, she spent several years at Wesley village and eventually moved to Wisconsin to be closer to her daughter, where she especially enjoyed many picnics by the lake and was very thrilled with the great grandchildren and tickled with her prediction of twins coming true!