Mary Martin Hamlin was born at home in Elon College, North Carolina, on June 4th, 1926. She was the eldest daughter of Leo Dewitte Martin and Ann Raper Martin, both teachers. Mary’s high school and early college years played out against the backdrop of the Second World War; she graduated from Greensboro College in 1947 and headed north to earn a Master’s in Art Education from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. After a brief teaching stint in High Point, NC, Mary took a position teaching elementary school art in Charlottesville, VA for a salary of $3,000/year, and purchased her first car, a celadon-green Chevy Bel Air, despite not quite knowing how to drive.

In Charlottesville Mary met her future husband, Stirling Sanborn “Skip” Hamlin, whom she married in 1955. Skip was a descendant of the James Sanborn family of Winchester, MA, co-founders of Chase and Sanborn Coffee. By the time Mary met Skip, the Sanborn fortune had been largely dissipated, but Skip’s family opened her eyes to a world far different from her small-town Southern upbringing. Skip took an industrial sales position with American Zinc, selling primarily to large paint manufacturers, and the couple began their married life in St. Louis. When Skip was transferred to the New York office they moved to Glen Cove, NY, where Mary gave birth to her only child, Edward Hamlin. In 1960 the young parents bought their first home in Fanwood, NJ; a second transfer took them to Rocky River, OH. On a strict budget, the family enjoyed camping trips wherever they lived, from Wisconsin to Newfoundland. Closer to home, Mary and Skip were avid tennis players and golfers.

In 1973, with another job change, they landed in Wheaton, IL. By then Skip had entered into a long struggle with bipolar disorder, suffering a series of job losses and setbacks from which he would never ultimately recover. Mary went back to work in order to support her family, pursuing a career as an elementary art teacher in local public schools that would span two decades. Through this most difficult period of her life Mary rose to the occasion with grit and grace, holding her family together with both a teenager and an erratic husband under her roof. On a public schoolteacher’s salary she managed to save enough to send her son to the University of Chicago. Her marriage ended in 1978.

Soon Mary blossomed, focusing on passions such as tennis, bridge, art making and volunteering. She traveled the world, from Tibet and Mongolia to Europe and Africa and South America, weaving her encounters with diverse cultures into art lessons back home. Upon retiring she volunteered teaching art to women undergoing life transitions, and in 2012 relocated to Boulder, CO, where she cherished living within minutes of her son Edward and daughter-in-law, neurologist Paula Mendes Hamlin, MD. She quickly found her tribe on the tennis court and at the bridge table, and soon launched a robust art program at her residence, The Carillon (now The Pearl at Boulder Creek). For thirteen years, until a few weeks before her death, Mary taught a weekly two-hour art lesson for her neighbors, building a showcase program from scratch. Through a friend of her son’s she met Wes Horner, a retired geologist and outdoorsman with whom she unlocked Colorado’s many wonders until Wes’s death in 2020.

Mary remained active until the end, tuned into world events, immersed in her beloved Russian lit classes, and engaged with her wide circle of friends. She passed quietly, surrounded by loving family and after precious days spent with her sister Karen, five months after entering her hundredth year. She is survived by her son, Edward Hamlin, and daughter-in-law, Paula Mendes Hamlin, MD, both of Boulder; by her sister, Karen Yost of Hickory, NC; and by six nieces and nephews. A celebration of life will be held in the near future in Boulder, followed in June by a family celebration in North Carolina.