Wife, mother, sister, daughter, and friend...writer, traveler, dancer, and artist, Mary Louise Geis Downer, 93, a 60-year San Marino resident, passed away May 30, 2014 in her home, with family by her side. Mary Lou was born in Montana to Homer and Gladys Geis.  She attended South Pasadena schools, graduating from high school in 1938. She attended college first at Monticello, in Illinois, and continued her studies at Pomona College, where among other accomplishments, she wrote the college's traditional spring musical her senior year.

Upon receiving her BA in English in 1942, Mary Lou worked at the Los Angeles Times, first as a copy "boy" and then in the editorial women's department before taking a reporting job. It was as Pomona that she met Dan Downer - the love of her life. On September 1, 1945, she and Dan were married in Juneau, Alaska. They then returned to Los Angeles and eventually moved to San Marino. There, Mary Lou devoted herself to her children and was active in many charitable organizations. Mary Lou loved cooking and appreciated fine food - insisting that her family try at least "two bites of everything", and working with her sister-in-law to compile family recipes into "the" family cookbook, a staple in children's and grandchildren's kitchens.

Mary Lou traveled widely, and her most ambitious trip was a four-month odyssey throughout Europe in the summer of 1963. In the late 1970s she joined her sister on a trip to China with the second group of outsiders allowed into that country following its re-opening to the West. Mary Lou never lost her passion for writing. She was a published children's author, a long-time member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and a charter member of the "Lunch Bunch," a prolific group of local authors. Mary Lou had a wonderful sense of humor and was a caring correspondent. She loved entertaining with imaginative parties. She faced life with enthusiasm and equanimity. She was generous and considerate, and esteemed kindness in others. She valued etiquette and admired action; she always wanted to be "doing something." Her counsel, her example, and her presence are irreplaceable and will be profoundly missed.

Mary Lou is survived by her husband, Daniel Downer, four children, five grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.