| Community Pulse - Friday, February 26, 2010
Deaths
Frances Martin
Frances Sylvia Martin, a longtime Menlo Park resident, died Feb. 19.
She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was raised in Argentina and Uruguay. She attended high school at St. Swithun's in Winchester, England, then returned to Buenos Aires.
In 1961 she moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a bilingual secretary at the International Monetary Fund. In D.C. she met and married Frederick Martin and they moved to Menlo Park, California, where they raised three children.
The family lived for 18 months in Geneva, Switzerland in the late 1960s. She volunteered for the Sierra Club and other environmental groups. She worked as a legal secretary, then as an administrative assistant at Stanford University. After retirement she went back to school and in 1995 received her bachelor's degree in development studies from U.C. Berkeley.
In 1999 she and Fred moved to Philo in Anderson Valley in Northern California. She worked at the adult school in Anderson Valley in the ESL program. She also volunteered with the Unity Club and her garden was selected for the 2008 Anderson Valley Garden Tour.
She loved gardening and the outdoors, and enjoyed traveling, reading and canning fruit from her garden. She transcribed the diaries of her great aunt Eunice G. Murray, a Scottish suffragist, and in 2007 published them in a private edition.
She is survived by her husband, Fred, her daughters Stephanie and Fiona; and two grandchildren. Her son Geoffrey died in 1999.
Donations may be made to the Anderson Valley Health Center.
There will be a "celebration of life" memorial at the Martin residence, 55 Holmes Ranch Road, Philo, Saturday, Feb. 27, from 2 to 5 p.m.
Mary Yost
Mary Elizabeth Yost, 88, a longtime Menlo Park resident, died Jan. 31.
She was born in San Jose and moved to Menlo Park at age 8.
She attended Ravenswood and St. Joseph's elementary schools and Sequoia High School. She graduated from San Jose State in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in art.
During World War II she worked as a draftsman with Hendy Iron Works in Sunnyvale, which built the engines for America's Liberty Ships. She later worked at the National Motor Bearing Co. in Redwood City.
In 1945 she met Albert Yost, a local civil engineer, and they were married in 1946 at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park.
The couple were well-known ballroom dancers on the Peninsula and led their own dance club —- the Jeff Jeffries Dancers. Twice they sailed around South America as dance instructors on the Prudential Cruise Line.
She was also active with the Menertons, a women's civic organization that promoted charitable projects. She volunteered at the Menerton thrift shop, helped plan fundraisers and did artwork for the group's popular cookbook.
She is survived by sons, Walter Yost of Carmichael, Calif., and Doug Yost of Palo Alto. A private service will be held this spring at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Menlo Park.
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