Iowa Mourns: Mary Ann Otte, an ‘Energizer Bunny’ in the community

When Mary Ann Otte and her husband moved to Davenport in 1948 for his job as an accountant, they joined St. Paul Catholic Church.

As the parish grew, plans were made for a new church, Our Lady of Victory, and Mary Ann was among the leaders who helped its first pastor, the Rev. Kenneth Martin, get it off the ground.

Martin and Mary Ann “hit it off,” Linda Nordeen, Mary Ann’s daughter, said.

“He said, ‘I have lots of hands and feet to help me with the church but before Mary Ann came along, I didn’t have a heart.'”

Her commitment to the church was life-long. 

Up until she died April 3 at age 93 in a Davenport hospital — becoming the first confirmed COVID-19 death in Scott County — Mary Ann attended daily Mass.

She sang in the choir. She was the member of several circles, served on the foundation that raised money and was a reliable contributor to bake sales.

“People always wanted to know what she was bringing,” Nordeen, of Davenport, said. Contributions typically included canned pickles and jellies, cake and bread.

Mary Ann lived by herself in her Davenport home and drove herself to wherever she wanted to go.

And that was lots of places. In addition to church, she’d go to the store for potatoes to make soup for neighbors and friends who had experienced loss, to performances of the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra and Quad-City Music Guild with Nordeen or to meetings of the Putnam Museum Guild where she took responsibility for lining up programs.

Approaching life with lively brown eyes and a cheerful smile, she was involved in a whole host of organizations and activities.

“My parents always said, ‘If you’re going to join something, don’t just be a member in name only. Be involved,'” Nordeen said.

“I always said she was the Energizer Bunny. She kept very busy. She had more energy than I will ever have. I think it’s the generation. She was always volunteering and helping out. How did she have time to catch her breath? All her activities kept her going.” 

Mary Ann was a member of PEO Chapter GW; volunteered in the Genesis Medical Center gift shop; played bridge with several different groups; read books, sometimes far into the night; and, until the 1990s, golfed with a women’s league at Duck Creek Park.

She liked clothes-shopping and was always stylishly dressed. Knowing her daughter hated to shop, she’d often pick up something that she thought might work for her, Nordeen said.

Mary Ann also enjoyed baking and, reflecting her Czech heritage, kolaches and dumplings were among her repertoire.

Christmas specialties were toffee and popcorn balls. Although Mary Ann shared most of her recipes,  she held back on the toffee. “She always said, ‘You’re going to have to wait until I die to get that.’ Well I went through her whole recipe box and I didn’t find it,” Nordeen said.

Perhaps Mary Ann knew it by heart.

Mary Ann’s husband George was a World War II Army Air Corps captain of a B-24 who died in 2006. They had been married 59 years and were the parents of Nordeen and three sons. They also had numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren with whom Mary Ann visited and kept in touch. She was not an absentee grandma.

And Mary Ann remained close to her own siblings and their families, making annual, six-hour trips at Christmas back to Nebraska where both she and George had grown up on farms.

On March 19, Mary Ann was at home when she jumped up to answer the phone and took a bad fall.

She was admitted to Genesis Medical Center-East Rusholme Campus for treatment of those injuries. She did not have COVID-19 nor had she been exposed to it as far as she knew.

But symptoms developed during hospitalization and she was put on a ventilator to help her breathe. For a time, she appeared to improve. “We thought she was going to make it,” Nordeen said. Then she began failing.

Mary Ann wasn’t allowed visitors, but Nordeen insisted the hospital figure out a way for her and family members to see her before she died.

“I was almost hysterical,” she said. “Letting people see their loved ones … they don’t know how important that is.”

Eventually, a closed-circuit television was rigged up, and a total of 14 family members saw Mary Ann receive the last rites of the church from Rev. Jake Grainer. She was eight days away from being 94.

A Mass attended only by family members was celebrated at Our Lady of Victory, followed by burial on a rainy day at Rock Island Arsenal Cemetery next to George.

“It was surreal,” Nordeen said.

But she feels good that after she raised a fuss to get the closed-circuit television set up at the hospital, virtual communication between family and their dying loved ones became more standard.

“It was typical of my mom that the last thing she does is help others. If she hadn’t been so sweet, I might not have wanted to do it.”