Mary Lynn Lorentz was born on April 12, 1949, in Oak Lawn, Illinois to her father George Lorentz and mother Jean Field. She and her two sisters were raised in the Chicago suburbs and spent summers at Camp Eagle Crest—a youth summer camp in the Northwoods of Wisconsin run by their father. It was there that Mary developed many of her lifelong passions including a love of horseback riding, animals, arts, and the great outdoors.
In 1967, Mary graduated from Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Lawn and soon began her first job as a secretary at Standard Oil Company in downtown Chicago. Thereafter, she embarked on a long and storied career as a United Airlines flight attendant during the heyday of luxury commercial aviation.
Mary met her first husband, Bruce Ovitz, through mutual friends in the mid-1980s. The two married during a ski and dog sledding trip in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on December 27, 1988, and welcomed their daughter Kimberly in 1990. The family of three resided in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood until the couple separated in 1994.
In the late 1990s, Mary reconnected with John Gjerde, whom she dated 25 years prior. Mary and John married on April 29, 2000, in John’s hometown of Lake City, Minnesota. The couple relocated to their home on Lake Delavan in Wisconsin where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Mary always treasured the natural beauty, serenity, and camaraderie of her lake community.
Over her lifetime, Mary was an avid runner, skier, horseback rider, boater, passionate cook, and traveler who explored numerous destinations in Alaska, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She was a beloved daughter, wife, friend, and mother who found fulfillment in parenting, connecting with friends, caring for her many dogs, cats, and horses, and tending to the stray pets and orphaned wildlife that her father, and later her daughter, brought home. More than anything, Mary loved creating a whimsical space for her daughter and neighborhood kids to play and explore the natural world at her home, affectionately known as “Camp Mary”—an homage to the summer camp of her youth.
Mary will be remembered for her larger-than-life personality, intensity, humor, reverberating laughter, refined sense of style, self-confidence, and adventurous spirit.
Mary passed away peacefully from natural causes at her home on October 27, 2025, while watching the sunset along the shore with her beloved dogs. She will be missed and leaves an uncanny stillness in the wake of her departure.
She is survived by her daughter, Kimberly Ovitz, of Winnipeg, Manitoba and is preceded in death by her parents and her husband John. A celebration of life will take place in the new year at the Delavan Lake Yacht Club; a date and time will be announced in the coming months. Additional photos and information may be found here.
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