Mary Ellen Topinka

Mary Ellen Topinka

Mary Ellen Topinka peacefully passed away November 2nd, at home in Kirkland,

WA. Born September 19, 1927 in Fort Smith, Arkansas to Schley Roland Hunt and Stella May McIntire. She was the 3rd of 5 siblings.

Mary grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland and spent much of her time with extended family and friends in the area. Mary Ellen married her sweetheart, Walter Topinka in 1950, a World War II Naval Veteran. While her husband attended medical school at Ohio State University, she worked at IBM, maintaining early computer card readers in the payroll department. Walter and Mary spent a year of medical residency in Panama City, Panama, at Gorgas Hospital.

In Panama they were very happy and spent free time learning to scuba dive, discovering under water treasures and making life-long friends. After Walter’s residency, and a brief stop in Wisconsin, they headed west from Cleveland to Seattle, where they settled in the Normandy Park area of South King County.

Mary was a devoted stay at home mother to her two sons Wayne and Alan. Mary loved to play piano and dance and was an accomplished artist. She won many awards for her painting and sculpture pieces. Mary Ellen and Walter travelled extensively in their retirement years to Africa, Alaska, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, South America, New Zealand, and other destinations.

After residing for short periods of time in the Washington state peninsula and Arizona, they settled for many of their retirement years in Moses Lake, Washington.

Walter passed away in 2011. Mary Ellen is survived by her sons Wayne Topinka of Kent and Alan (Cindy) Topinka of Kirkland and two grandchildren, Madeline Topinka of New York City, and Nicholas Topinka of Boulder, Colorado.