Hobby writer, teacher celebrates birthday

She describes herself as a "hobby writer."

"A reporter once called me that. I think she was trying to put me in my place, but I quite like it," said Mary Settelmeyer-Fair at the celebration of her 95th birthday on Sunday. "It gave me something to hang on to."

Fair apologizes for never earned a living writing, but that fact never stopped her. She contributed to the Record Courier for a number of years, has a book of her writings called "Spinnings," and helped compile the history of Trinity Lutheran Church in "His Love Endures Forever."

Surrounded by family and friends at the Church in Gardnerville, Fair has a kind word for everyone that comes to her seat at the front of the hall to say hello.

The names may elude her at this point in life, but the faces remind her of the students they were some decades ago.

"This was my prize student," she offered to one.

"This one was ornery," she said of another.

"This one's father was a preacher and my dad said, 'You know the preacher's boys are always well behaved."

Her cheeks were graced with hundreds of kisses and Fair enjoyed every last one, pulling the guests closer to her as she reached out and held their hands.

She said of her longevity, "I must have been injected with the right stuff."

But with the passage of years, Fair has lost a little in the recollection of events.

"Time does something to these memories," she said. "It embellishes them, taking away some of the negative and adding a lot of positive."

One of two children born in 1907 in Ten Falls, Idaho, a then-Mary Hancock moved to Gardnerville in the winter of 1937. She graduated from University Nevada Reno and was hired at Douglas High School as a business teacher after the previous teacher left to follow her soldier husband.

"These were wartimes, you know. That's how I got that job."

After a few years of teaching, she met at Trinity and fell in love with Lawrence Settelmeyer in 1940. She quit teaching fulltime and became a housewife, occasionally substituting at the high school.

Within a short time, the couple welcomed a baby girl, Francis Settelmeyer, to the family. Five years later, Charlotte came along.

But the couple would not be the parents of two children for long.

Francis died at the age of six in 1950 from a strep infection. Charlotte was just 1 years old.

"It was heartbreaking," Fair said. "I was so happy when Charlotte came along because now Francis would have a friend, but then we lost Francis and Charlotte was alone."

The couple enjoyed wedded bliss for 45 years, until Lawrence died in 1985.

Around the same time, a close friend, Ralph Fair, lost his wife. The Fairs and Settelmeyers attended many events together during the years. After the loss of their respective spouses, Ralph and Mary struck up a friendship. And in September 1991, the couple married. Ralph died a few years later.

"These men, they keep leaving. They keep dying on me," she said in jest.

The number of students who filed past Fair proclaiming their love for her, were a testament to the enduring quality of the white-haired "hobby writer" with the lively hazel eyes.

"My kids and I loved each other and they couldn't get anything past me."