Mary Ann Darby was the beloved daughter of Dr. Glen D. Cayler athlete, coach, and physician affiliated with Los Angeles County Hospital for fifty years and his lovely wife, Esther Haddock Cayler. Blessed with her mother’s looks and her father’s talent, Mary Ann was beautiful, vivacious, and charming, the girl every boy wanted to dance with. She brought a glow to any gathering, a sparkle to any party. In March 1947, on a date with another man, she met Richard M. Darby, who asked her out for the following night, present escort be damned. They married only six months later, and not long thereafter Mary Ann took her first job as a gym and modern dance teacher at Rosemead High School. She raised four children, three girls and one boy, supporting them in every activity, from Bluebird, Camp Fire, and Cub Scout troupes to swim team and dance, sewing, and art classes. As a member of the Pasadena Lawyers Wives, she was instrumental in establishing the Pasadena Court House Tours, to help educate youth about the judicial system, and she provoked a passion for dance and sports in many of her students at Pasadena High School. She was a beloved grandmother, her grandchildren crying in delight and running to greet her whenever she visited, and a helpful one as well, pitching in with the cooking or dishes or ironing.
It broke her children’s hearts to lose her piece by piece, to see her faculties vanish one by one. Yet as her abilities diminished, she still tried to be useful, helping with the housework in small ways. And she never lost her sweet disposition. She always loved the people who cared for her and, while she could still talk, called them her “little girls” or “little boys.” “Little”, her favorite term of endearment as Alzheimer’s progressed. For her, we were all her little children, and she loved her children unconditionally.
