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Mary Cleaveland Wohlers. The life of a remarkable woman ended on January 7, 2001. Born in her parents' home in Berkeley, CA, December 28, 1912 she was a remarkable intellectual and physically dynamic force. She was a gifted musician to such a degree that her piano instructor presented her with a Steinway Grand Piano when she was seven. As a very early reader, she chose Plutarch's Lives and the works of Socrates for he childhood contemplation. She knew most of the Bible by heart and quoted it often. She loved poetry, theatre and all forms of music. She attended a portion of her early schooling in Datil, NM and later attended the Anna Head School for Girls in Berkeley. She maintained friendships from that group throughout her life. Mary began college at San Jose State University at the age of sixteen. She later transferred to U C Berkeley despite both her parents being from the first and second Stanford graduating classes and with two older siblings already Stanford graduates. In July of 1934, she married Claus Joseph Wohlers, a Montana rancher and miner who worked on the Gold Dredge "Mosier," which was constructed, operated and partly owned by her father Newton Cleaveland in Pioneer, MT. Her father, Newton, was also the Vice President of Yuba Manufacturing Inc. the company that made this dredge and the majority of the floating gold and tin dredges in the world at that time. As a divorced single parent she moved to Deer Lodge where she worked at several jobs including newspaper reporter for the Silver State Post, cleaning woman and music teacher. In 1953, she with her two youngest children, moved back to Berkeley, CA where she began working for the Montclair Nursery to further develop her lifetime interest in plants but consistently focused her attention on the native plants of California. Subsequently, she worked in the department of Landscape Horticulture at the University of California, Davis and after her first retirement and with data from her Davis colleagues, proceeded to both teach all the original courses and was the major contributor to the design of the degreed Landscape Horticultural curriculum at the College of Marin in Marin County, CA. In her second retirement she relocated to Peralta, NM where she was the President of the first chapter of the New Mexico Native Plant Society. During this time she also created a series of fanciful greeting cards and posters of birds and animals, the most fanciful of which was her "Bear Diddley", a dancing bear with a guitar, commissioned by her entertainer neighbor Bo Diddley. She continued to be an avid experimenter and innovator in plant growing techniques unique to the New Mexico climate where she evolved a sandy half-acre lot into a marvelous garden with a subterranean greenhouse. From a single shovel size start she created a generous buffalo grass lawn which became a rugged and cushioned soccer field and romping place for her grandchildren and then her great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by parents, Newton Cleaveland and Agnes Morley Cleaveland, author of the best selling autobiographical "No Live for a Lady" and "Satan's Paradise" both dealing with pioneer life in early New Mexico, sisters, Morley Cleaveland of Datil, NM, Loraine Lavender of Santa Fe, NM and brother, Norman Cleaveland of Datil, NM, also of Santa Fe, NM. She is survived by her three children; Beth Tietjen and husband Joe of Bosque Farms, NM, Norman Wohlers of Davis, CA, and Mary Ann Montague of Dixon, CA; her grandchildren, Julie Ledbetter of Los Lunas, NM, Gloria Caruana and husband Greg of La Mesa, CA, Janet Anderson and husband Mark, of Rio Rancho, NM, Lee Tietjen, Joseph Tietjen of Los Lunas, NM, Lila Smiel and husband Scott of Los Lunas, NM, Cady and Brice Horobin-Wohlers of Davis, CA; and seven great grandchildren, Aubree and Nicholas Caruana, Sebastian and Brittnee Tietjen, Collin and Clayton Anderson, and Tabitha Smiel. Pallbearers, Norman Wohlers, Joe Tietjen, Joseph Tietjen, Lee Tietjen, Mark Anderson, Scott Smiel. The graveside services will be held at 10:00 a.m. at Terrace Gorden Cemetery in Belen. Riverside Mortuary is handling the arrangements.
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