Mary Jane Mastapeter's Obituary
Mary Jane (nee Williams) Mastapeter
Mary Jane (nee Williams) Mastapeter, 86, a resident of Sunrise Assisted Living at Countryside in Sterling, Virginia, died on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 following a short illness. Mrs. Mastapeter was born on July 9, 1925 at Old Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC to Clyde G. Williams, PhD and Ruth Crowther Williams. An only child, she resided on Capitol Hill before moving to Teaneck, New Jersey with her parents in 1933. She attended elementary, middle, and high school in Teaneck and graduated from Teaneck Senior High School in June 1943. She subsequently attended Averett College in Danville, Virginia, graduating with a two-years Associates of Arts degree. Returning to Teaneck and the metropolitan New York City area in the summer of 1945, Mrs. Mastapeter began her twelve-year career in radio broadcasting and entertainment marketing and management. During the period 1945-1957, she worked for the Mutual Broadcasting System and New York's flagship radio station WOR. While at WOR, she worked closely with the station's founding family, the Gamblings. During the 1950's Mrs. Mastapeter was the executive chaperone and concierge for the Bobby Benson ("The Cowboy Kid") and the B-Bar-B Riders radio show. During her tenure, the show and its cast, which included Don Knotts, traveled throughout the U.S. She was concurrently the executive assistant to the show's producer, and Mutual Radio's Vice President, Herbert C. Rice. In September 1957, she married George V. Mastapeter of Martinsville, New Jersey and moved to Martinsville before moving to Danielson and Brooklyn, Connecticut in 1961 where she partnered with her husband in creating and operating their family of small, locally-focused businesses. She returned to New Jersey with her husband and son Craig, born in 1959, moving in 1966 to Finderne. In December 1971, she and her family moved back to Martinsville where she resided until retiring to Kilmarnock, Virginia in July 1985. As a resident of Kilmarnock, Mrs. Mastapeter was an active member of the Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club and Grace Episcopal Church. As a parish member of Grace Church, she was a docent at historic Christ Church in Weems, Virginia and a member of the parish's "Meals-on-Wheels" team. An avid golf and bridge player, she was a member of a number of golf bridge groups in the Kilmarnock area. Although she divorced her husband in 1991, she remained In Kilmarnock on Barnes Creek until she moved to Leisure World of Virginia in Lansdowne, Virginia in June 2005. She then moved to Sunrise Assisted Living at Countryside in Sterling, Virginia in May 2008. She is survived by her son Craig, and daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. Arrangements were provided by Loudoun Funeral Chapels of Leesburg, Virginia. She will be interred with her parents in the Crowther-Williams Plot in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland on Saturday, September 17, 2011.
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