In Loving Memory of Mary Ann (Buck) Goble
January 10, 1930 – June 19, 2026

Mary Ann Goble, age 96, passed away peacefully on Friday, June 19, 2026, in Laguna Woods, California.

She was born on January 10, 1930, at home on the family farm in Holt, Michigan, to Daniel Leslie Buck, Sr. and Anna Mary (White) Buck. Raised in a farming family, Mary Ann learned the value of hard work and caring for others from an early age. She could even drive a team of horses. She graduated from Owosso High School in Owosso, Michigan, with the Class of 1947.

Mary Ann dedicated more than 45 years to a career in nursing as a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), bringing compassion and care to patients in hospitals and doctors’ offices and even made house calls. She was known to line up her own children at home for immunizations, always going the extra mile for those in her care.

On September 15, 1951, she married Richard Oliver Goble. Their honeymoon began in Laguna Beach, California, while Richard served with the United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. Mary Ann often fondly referred to it as her “one-year honeymoon” until they returned to Michigan with their first daughter, Ann. After the birth of six more children, the family eventually returned to Laguna Beach, California, later lived in Marysville, Washington, and retired in Jacksonville, Oregon, before finally returning to their beloved Southern California.

Mary Ann was the devoted mother of seven children, grandmother to 12 grandchildren, and great-grandmother to 22 great-grandchildren. She also opened her heart and home to many others as if they were her own. She had the kindest heart and touched countless lives. She possessed a legendary green thumb—her gardens were true labors of love. She enjoyed camping, traveling, wine tastings, music, drawing, painting and had a deep fondness for animals, especially her beloved dogs, cats, horses, and laying chickens. She famously taught her grandchildren to “talk to the girls” to encourage more eggs.

A woman of deep Catholic faith with Mayflower ancestry, Mary Ann was loved by everyone who knew her. To those who knew her best, she was truly a saint on Earth — or the closest thing to one.

She is survived by six of her seven children: daughters Ann Ardohain, Cynthia Carmer, Alice (Norman) Blandel, Deborah (Gerald “Dusty”) White, Beverly Eaves and son Richard Goble; along with her sister Gloria (Buck) Zelenka, and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard Oliver Goble; daughter Elaine Marie Goble; grandsons Nicolas James Paris and Travis James White; great-granddaughter Rose Katherine White; brother Daniel Buck, Jr.; and sister Marcia (Buck) Goerge.

Mary Ann made the world a better place. She lived by the Golden Rule and always repeated it to her children: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Mary Ann’s faith, love, and gentle spirit will remain forever in the hearts of those who were blessed to know her. May her memory be a blessing.