When the military sent out a message during World War II that it wanted “20,000 good women” in the Marines, Mary Jeane Tock signed up.
Barely out of high school, Tock “just wanted to do it,” said her son, Denis Tock Nelson of Lakewood.
Mary Jeane Tock, who went on to teach school and act in local plays, died at a care facility April 11. She was 87.
Tock served a year with the Marines and then completed a degree in business at the University of Denver. She taught business law, typing and shorthand at North and Thomas Jefferson high schools for more than 30 years.
While teaching, she worked with Emily Griffith Opportunity School to host one of the first local educational television programs. Weekly for 18 weeks, her typing class was broadcast on Channel 6. She insisted her young son watch. Asked if he learned to type, he said, “well, basically no.”
Mary Jeane Tock “always loved school” and was constantly learning, said her sister, Dorothe Akes of Cheyenne.
She staged mock trials in her classrooms, using actual lawyers and students as jury members, learned how to fly, and roller-skated to school when the students did. “She was up for anything,” said her sister.
At age 70, Tock did her first parasailing, off the coast of Mexico.
“She was high-energy and brought a lot of fun to everything she did,” said Paula Sarlls of Aurora, president of the Colorado Columbine chapter of the Women Marines Association.
Tock appeared in several local plays, at Bonfils Theatre and the Fox in Aurora, and served on the committee that planned the renovation of the Paramount Theatre in downtown Denver.
Mary Jeane Tock (often called “M.J.”) was born in What Cheer, Iowa, on March 6, 1924, and graduated from high school in Centerville, Iowa.
She married Keith F. Olson, and they had one son, Denis Tock. They later divorced. She and Denis moved to Colorado, and she enrolled at DU. Later she married Grant David Nelson, and he adopted her son.
In addition to her son and sister, she is survived by one granddaughter; three great- grandchildren; two other sisters, Peggy Hakola of Prescott, Ariz., and Nancy Ulvick of Gaithersburg, Md.; and a brother, Robert Tock of Blue Springs, Mo.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
