Mary Ellen Black, 97, passed peacefully away April 26, 2025, at the family farm. She was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio on October 19, 1927, to the late Cecil and Mary (Hyatt) Jackson.
Upon graduation from Mount Vernon High School in 1945, Mary Ellen was offered a paid college education by a teacher there; circumstances prevented her from attending more than one year. However, after raising six children she went back to The Ohio State University and obtained a master’s degree in social work, later a Master of Pastoral Counseling from Ashland University, then a Master of Divinity from Earlham College. She worked at several agencies in Huron and Sandusky counties as a clinical social worker and counselor and later in Knox in similar positions, finally retiring at nearly eighty years of age.
Growing up in Bangs in during part of the Great Depression and before World War Two, Mary Ellen learned the toughness and resourcefulness that formed that greatest generation, aided by a genetic inheritance from common ancestors of prominent historical women such as Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and frontier heroine Hannah Duston; other ancestors were some of the sturdy pioneers who migrated to Knox County from the Frederick-Hyattstown Maryland area and gave Fredericktown its name. In 1946, she married Kenneth Black, a handsome farm boy and Battle Of The Bulge veteran from just up Columbus Road.
Pragmatic and hard-working, Mary Ellen was also deeply spiritual and intellectually curious, finding time while raising a large family to read and study the works of great theologians, at one time corresponding with Dr. Albert Schweitzer. She served as a lay minister at several churches around the state, eventually becoming ordained. Mary Ellen attended the 1963 March in Washington. Also, artistic and musically talented, she sang in her church choir for years, at local events and several times on the 1960s WMVO radio program Coffee Cup.
Mary Ellen is survived by sons Lee (Julie) and Tim (Donna) Black, daughters Mary Kinsman, Becky Black, and Nanette (Mike Andorfer) Black; grandchildren Ken Black, Alex Kinsman, Carly Diroll-Black, Kaitlin Sockman, and Max Andorfer; nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
She was preceded in death by husband Kenneth, son Andrew and a sister, Doris Welker.
Visitation will be held on Friday, May 2, 2025, from 12:00 – 2:00PM at Snyder Funeral Home – Lasater Chapel, 11337 Upper Gilchrist Rd. in Mount Vernon. Where a memorial service will follow at 2:00 PM. Inurnment will be in Mount Vernon Memorial Gardens.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The National Stroke Association, Hospice of The Western Reserve, or charity or one’s choice.
To express a condolence to the Black family, please visit www.snyderfuneralhomes.com
Funeral Home: Snyder Funeral Home – Lasater Chapel
Website: www.snyderfuneralhomes.com