AUGUSTA – Mary A. (Goding) Kyes, 86, of Farmingdale, passed away peacefully Friday, Dec. 8, at the Maine Veterans’ Home in Augusta, with loved ones at her side.

Mary was born Sept. 17, 1920, in Auburn, the daughter of James A. and Vesta (Dunlap) Goding.

She attended Auburn schools and graduated from Edward Little High School in 1938, Bliss Business College in 1942, and received her B.S. degree from the University of Maine at Orono in 1957.

On June 30, 1944, she married Charles L. Kyes at the Universalist Church in Auburn. She began her teaching career in Sept. 1942, at West Paris High School, then from 1943-1944 at Mexico High School.

In the fall of 1944, she joined her husband in Syracuse, N.Y., where he was stationed in World War II at the Syracuse Army Air Base. She worked at the Carrier Corporation where the IBM Key Punch machines had a beginning.

In January 1946 they returned to Maine at the Kyes family farm in North Jay. They moved to Augusta in February 1946, and were employed at the Veterans Administration Center in Togus. In September 1946, she began teaching at the Kennebec School of Commerce in Gardiner. Later on, she taught at the Old Gardiner High School and Hall-Dale High School in Farmingdale.

She returned to teach at the New Gardiner Area High School in 1973, where she served as chairman of the business education department. She also taught adult education at Cony and Gardiner High Schools. She retired in June 1986, after 38 years as a business education teacher.

She was a former member of the Danville Grange, and a member of the Lambda Chi Sorority, National Education Association, Business Education Association of Maine, Maine Education Association, Kennebec Retired Teachers Association, Maine Retired Teachers Association, a founding member of the Maine Association of Retirees, University of Maine Alumni Association, Delta Kappa Gamma and National Honorary Teachers Society. She also served on the Women’s Board of the Gardiner General Hospital.

She was a life member and past matron of Marion Chapter No. 63, O.E.S., Gardiner, a life member of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, and a charter member of the Gardiner Federal Credit Union.

She was a former member of the Highland Avenue United Methodist Church, but for many recent years has attended the Winter Street Baptist Church in Gardiner.

Art, travel and gatherings of family and friends were Mary’s passions. She and her husband had vacation trips together, including England and Scotland, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and all of the other bordering Canadian provinces. They had visited all of the lower 48 states as well as Alaska.

When their children were old enough, the family traveled with their travel trailer to many state and national parks, including a favorite, Cavendish Beach, PEI, Branson, Mo., Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Great Smokey Mountains and the Gettysburg National Historic Site.

She was predeceased by her parents; a brother, Garfield Goding; and sisters, Vera Pickle, Flora Bragdon, and Evelyn Wyman.

She is survived by her husband of 62 years; a son, Dr. Randy Kyes of Seattle, Wash.; a daughter, Kendra Kyes of Farmingdale; grandchildren, Colby and Rachel Kyes; and their mother, Kelly Kyes, of Seattle, Wash.; a brother, Elmer Goding and his wife, Jean, of Auburn; a sister, Madeline Beaucage of Portsmouth, R.I.; cousins, Marian Tripp of Danville, and Dorothy Emerson of Windham; nephews, Linwood Pickle and wife, Nancy, of South Hadley, Mass.; Dr. Terry Wyman and wife, Jean, of Falmouth, Paul Goding and wife, Sharon, of Auburn, Dr. Gregory Beaucage and wife, Jean, of Cincinnati, Ohio; nieces, Lorraine Ray and husband, Kervin, of Hernando, Fla., Joanne Rioux of Woolwich, Pamela Szalajeski and husband, Edmund, of Portland, Sharon Romanow of Belfast, Gayle Koralek and husband, Dr. Richard, of Palo Alto, Calif., Meredith Glover and husband, Richard, of Camp Verde, Ariz., Patricia Davidson and husband, Barry, of Clermont, Fla., Betty Eileen Dolloff and husband, Jeff, of Peru, Cheryl Bushey and husband, Richard, of Weymouth, Mass.

The family would like to thank Dr. Onion and the staff at the Family Medicine Institute in Augusta, for many years of care, and the staff and nurses at the Maine Veterans’ Home, Nursing Home Care Unit, for the kind and loving care given to Mary for the past five months.