Date of Birth:
Wednesday, October 8, 1941
Date of Death:
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Age:
79 years old

Mary Priebe Vine

Mary Eleanor Louise Angela Priebe Vine, 79, of Rochester passed away at Season’s Hospice House on Wednesday, May 13, 2021 after a long and tenacious fight. Mary was born October 8, 1941, the sixth of eight children, to Mayo and Josephine (Hanf) Priebe. Her happiest childhood and early adult memories were of riding and showing horses with her siblings and father at Priebe Stock Farm. She attended St. Johns, the Villa Maria Academy, and Lourdes (’60). After high school she attended secretarial school and worked in Owatonna, Rochester, and the Twin Cities. Her chosen profession helped her to facilitate a work-to-live lifestyle; and live it she did. In 1964 she set out for San Francisco with flowers in her hair. By day she lived the life of a truly mod, Mad Men-like secretary at the prestigious ad firm, J Walter Thompson. At night and on weekends, she embodied all of what San Francisco could be to a free and single woman in the 1960s. Mary loved that city and never sat still, attending beat poetry readings at City Lights Bookstore, peace rallies, and Joan Baez concerts in Golden Gate Park. She frequented nude beaches, rode a Vespa up and down the city’s steep hills, raced and showed her beloved Afghan Hounds, Zenny and Tasha, and never intended to leave Frisco.

In 1974 Mary returned to Rochester to help care for her ailing father. She took a parttime secretary job at Vine Funeral Home. Mary had known the owner and proprietor, Dave Vine, for some years. Although she thought he was charming and handsome, she knew he drank too much, had had a very turbulent first marriage, and was an incorrigible ladies’ man. But Dave was relentless in his pursuit of her, and soon, her life in San Francisco and late-night orange juices (Mary never was a drinker) at Vesuvio’s in North Beach gave way to steak dinners and dancing in Dave’s apartment above the funeral home. Mary returned to a version of the life she was raised in—one filled with horses and long winters. She began as the executive-level secretary at the Kahler Hotel and she and Dave were married in 1978. They settled on a small farm on the outskirts of Rochester and welcomed a child in 1980. Mary and her daughter spent the next 25 years trail riding and showing horses side-by-side. Mary was a formidable horse woman and broke, trained, and showed horses in every discipline from Western Driving, to Saddle Seat Equitation, to Western Pleasure and Barrel Racing. After she returned to Rochester for good, she was never again without a horse and rode well into her mid-70s—portable oxygen concentrator slung over the saddle horn, replacing the formerly ever-present cigarette perched between her lips.

Mary lived a generally privileged life but not a fancy one. She was petite and very pretty, could be elegant and refined when needed, but was also foul-mouthed and a true force. She was kind, deeply forgiving, and accepted people as they were. She always told it like it was and said the hard things you sometimes didn’t want to hear but probably should hear for your own good.

Mary is survived by her daughter, Annie Ringo (Madeline) of Accokeek, MD, and a stepson, Randy (Roanna) of Rochester. She is also survived by two brothers, James and Joseph (Diane) Priebe, both of Rochester, her Yorkshire Terrier, Pepper, and her last horse, a Missouri Fox Trotter named Jersey. Mary is also survived by the many many other “children” she “adopted” along the way—you know who you are and you know she loved you dearly. She was preceded in death by her devoted husband, her parents, three sisters, and two brothers.

Memorials are suggested to PFLAG, the NAACP, or Skydog Ranch.

The funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at the Church of the Resurrection with Rev. Peter Schuster officiating. Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Monday evening, May 17, 2021 in the River Park Chapel at Macken Funeral Home and one hour prior to the service on Tuesday at the church. Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery.