Mary Gilyard

Mary Ann Gilyard, age 100 of Sauk Centre, MN passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on Friday, December 8th, 2023 in Centra Care Hospital, Sauk Centre.

*************Please note the date of the service****************

A Funeral Service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, December 22^nd at First Lutheran Church in Sauk Centre with Rev. Michael Carlson officiating. Interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery in Sauk Centre.

Visitation will be held from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Friday at the Church.

Mary Ann Hylaman was born December 31st, 1922 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota to Elmer and Laura (Smith) Hylaman. She was united in marriage to Roman J. Gilyard on May 27, 1950 in Sauk Centre. During World War II, Mary had worked in defense plants in the Twin Cities. The couple were starting a family when building and running Hillcrest Motel. They moved to Anoka in 1963, where they built and co-owned Gilyards Truck stop.  In 1971 they moved to Sebeka and ran K’s Motel on Highway 71.  Official retirement occurred in May of 1997, when the couple returned to Sauk Centre to live in Lakeshore Estates Senior Apartments.  They belonged to the VFW and American Legion. Roman died in 1998. They were members of First Lutheran Church in Sauk Centre, which is where Mary celebrated her 100th birthday this past Spring!  

Marys interests include sewing clothing for her children and grandchildren, And also making fashionable outfits for their Barbie dolls.  She constructed Halloween costumes and sewed beautiful quilts to gift for special occasions.  Her sense of creativity was often expressed through painting, crocheting, crafting, and dabbling in ceramics, and she liked to decorate! She also did enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, and wordsearches, until her sight began failing earlier this year. In fact, she could become quite competitive about puzzles of all types.  She had a habit of pulling nearly all of the pieces out of the box when everyone was still working on the borders. “I think we’re missing a piece,” she would earnestly claim when only about a third of the puzzle was complete! She was usually right!  She was quite set in her ways, yet very witty and always kind to everyone.  She also had a strong sense of tradition.  She loved celebrating with family and was looking forward to Christmas and her 101^st birthday on New Years Eve!  She almost made it!

Survivors include her children, Carol Jean (Bill) Brown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Beverly Ann (Mark) Heinen of Sauk Centre, Dale Lee (Rosa) Gilyard of Garland, Texas, and Daniel Roman (Shereen) Gilyard of Coon Rapids; 11 grandchildren, Taria, Nicole, Luke, Montana, Roman, Myles, Lilah, Bethany, Casey, Karen, and Candace; and 10 great-grandchildren, Annika, Kiera, Nora, Kiefer, Laine, Eloise, Evan, Mason, Corbin, and Isaac.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Roman Gilyard on February 9, 1998;  Also by brothers, Roy Hylaman and William Hylaman; and sister, Laura Hoosline.