Mary Alice Fullerton of Lyndeborough, NH, passed away peacefully with family members at her side on September 5, 2023. She was 92. She had recovered from a fall that required a partial hip replacement and had recently moved into her new cottage in Kensington, NH. She was born on April 17, 1931, in New Castle, PA, to the parents of Gillis Flinn Falls and Lucille G. Kaufman. She was the youngest of three children, with sister Gertrude Lucille and brother Gillis Doty. Mary Alice attended New Castle High School, where she loved the theatre, before attending Allegheny General Hospital nursing school in Pittsburg, PA. She used her nursing skills throughout her life at various community hospitals in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Her last employment was at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts.

In 1952 Mary Alice married her high school sweetheart, Wayne R. Fullerton Jr., a newly commissioned US Army officer. She accompanied him on assignments in Virginia, Germany, and California. She was an avid hiker and felt happiest outdoors, with a canine leading her down the trail and a friend by her side sharing a story.

Mary Alice climbed down and up the Grand Canyon 3 times, plus once on mules. While living in New Hampshire, she set her sights on climbing New England’s forty-eight 4,000-foot peaks, which she accomplished in her early 60’s. In addition, she loved backpacking out west in the California Sierra, Utah Uinta, and Oregon Cascade mountains.

She was a world traveler, and her hiking treks and vacation trips took her to Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Russia, Bermuda, St. Thomas Virgin Islands, England, Wales, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Mary Alice enjoyed various sports and outside activities throughout the year and encouraged her family to do the same. Her interests included tennis, yoga, ice skating, tobogganing, camping, swimming, kayaking, cross-country skiing, and hosting social get-togethers. She completed the Bonnie Belle run outside Boston in her 50s and did her training runs on the backroads of Lyndeborough. She also loved dancing and being able to talk anyone into a bridge or cribbage game and even took a run at learning to play the ukulele before arthritis caused her to give it up. For the past 40+ years, Mary Alice lived at home in Lyndeborough, NH, where she exemplified the role of a pioneer woman, enjoying the challenges of maintaining a woodburning stove through harsh NH winters, knitting sweaters and Afghan blankets, tending to her garden, or talking friends into joining her to pick fresh fruit and berries at local farms in the summer. She loved to make her sourdough bread and Christmas cookies with her daughters. Throughout the year, as a visitor, it was difficult to leave her place without a plate of cookies or a bag of muffins.

Mary Alice believed in the merits of selflessness and offered her volunteer services throughout her life. They included Meals-on-Wheels and FISH coordinator, Lyndeborough planning board member, ballot clerk at a local polling station, Cub Scout den mother, and school/summer camp nurse. Mary Alice was preceded in death by her husband, Wayne, her favorite dance partner. She is survived by her children Emily [Fred Marshall], Dan [Kathleen Fullerton], Trudi, and Joan [John Skewes]; grandchildren Scott, Lindsey, Kelly, Brittany, Sean, and Eva; and great-grandchildren Kennedy, Graham, Oliver, Waylon, and Collin, whom she dearly loved. To all of them, losing their Nana was a heartbreak. They are comforted that she is hiking a trail somewhere with many of her friends. Mary Alice’s ashes will be buried alongside her husband, Wayne, in New Castle, PA. A celebration of life will be held next spring.