Mary Patricia Shinn

Mary Patricia (Willis) Shinn died peacefully on Friday, September 11, 2026, of natural causes at the  age of 87 at St. Luke's Hospital in Boise, Idaho. Her husband of 66 years, her son, and her daughter were by her side.

Mary was born on May 15, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan, to Monica Bell Blackwell Willis and John Felix Willis, joining her sister Anne. The family lived in Detroit; Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York, before settling in Los Angeles, California, when Mary was nine years old. Mary graduated from Dorsey High School at the top of her class in 1957. She attended UCLA, where she was a respected member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education. At UCLA, she met Norval Reed Shinn, whom she wed on September 10, 1960, in their senior year together. In Los Angeles, Mary embarked on a teaching career that would span nearly 40 years. In 1962, the couple moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. While her husband attended Harvard, Mary taught first grade in Wayland, Massachusetts. In 1968, they moved to Stockholm, Sweden, where their first child, Annika, was born. Shortly afterwards, the family relocated to Seattle, Washington, before returning briefly to Stockholm and finally settling in Boise in 1971. 

Mary arrived in Idaho before kindergarten was included in schools. She quickly set about to change that. The Boise Public Schools appointed her as kindergarten supervisor, a groundbreaking role in which she and a select few created and oversaw the first public kindergartens in the state. Mary continued this trailblazing work until her son, Karl, was born in 1974. In the 1980s, she returned to education and taught kindergarten and grades 1–2 at Mountain View Elementary School until her retirement in 2004. 

Mary adored her family and liked to travel. Between 1994 and 2019, she and her husband made almost 40 trips to Sweden to visit their children – both of whom moved there as adults – and her grandchildren.

 Mary loved the water. As a young child, she spent summers swimming in Upper Michigan. As a grandmother, she did so in Sweden. Mary was also an avid seamstress who created many of her own clothes and a wedding gown for her daughter. Mary was exceptionally kind and sincere, gracefully blending drive and ambition with selflessness. 

She was loved and admired by many and will be dearly missed. Mary was preceded in death by her parents, her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and three nephews. She is survived by her husband, Norval Reed Shinn, of Boise, Idaho; her daughter Annika Shinn Jormin with husband Fredrik Jormin; her son Karl Shinn; her grandchildren Marcus and Rebecca Jormin, all of Stockholm, Sweden; her sister Anne McGinness with husband Patrick McGinness, of Washington state; and ten nieces and nephews and their families.

 A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at 3 p.m. at St. Michael's Episcopal Cathedral, 518 N. 8th Street, Boise, Idaho, of which Mary was a member since 1971. 

Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Bowman Funeral Directors