Mary Joanna Sheckells Stonesifer, 98, passed away Wednesday, April 29, 2026. She was born in Annapolis on July 13, 1927. Mary Jo, a.k.a. "Betty," was the second of four children born to Floyd and Joanna Garner Sheckells. She loved growing up on the family farm, Lydia's Rest, which overlooked the South River. Her father and uncle worked on the farm, raising crops and livestock. Mary Jo had fond memories of milking the cow, chopping firewood, and carrying water up to the house from the well. She and her siblings enjoyed horse riding, crabbing, swimming, and sledding.

She attended Annapolis Grammar School and graduated from Annapolis High School in 1945. She excelled in school, joined the Writing Club, loved reading books, and started writing poetrywhile a teenager. Mary Jo started her nurses training when she entered Church Home and Hospital on March 1, 1946. After three years of rigorous training, she graduated and received certification as a "Registered Nurse" by the Maryland State Board of Examiners of Nurses on April 20, 1949. After two years as a Head Nurse at Church Home and Hospital, Mary Jo accepted a position at Fort Howard VA Hospital where she met her future husband, Dr. Paul S. Stonesifer, Jr. They were married on January 19, 1952, and moved to Bel Air, Maryland, where Paul opened a medical practice. They both worked in his general practice while raising five children. In the mid 1960's, Mary Jo accepted a position in Public Health Nursing with the Harford County Health Department. She loved her job and was a dedicated, hard-working nurse. Following the death of her husband in 1984, she retired and moved to Havre de Grace to be close to her best friend. During her retirement, Mary Jo wrote and collated her memoirs and guided a memoir class for several years. The Harford Poetry and Literary Society published a number of her poems in Manorborn, an annual collection of poetry and prose.

Mary Jo married her second husband, Bruce H. Gallup, Jr., in 1990. They enjoyed many memorable trips over the next twenty years – Australia, Africa, Galapagos Islands, Alaska, Canada, Iceland, and many national parks out West. Traveling had become a passion for her after she attended a group tour to China in 1985 and then Russia in 1987.

Bruce became disabled by Parkinson's Disease and moved to Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in late 2009. Mary Jo moved to St. Mary's County to be near him and manage his care until his death in 2016. She stayed in California, Maryland, for the rest of her life.

Mary Jo is survived by her five children David Stonesifer of Albuquerque, NM, Lynn Stonesifer of Abingdon, MD, Jodie McNamara (Steve) of Missoula, MT, and Charlotte Yeatman (Ted) of Dameron, MD, and Jennie Stonesifer of Albuquerque, NM, five grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and two step great-grandchildren.

She was pre-deceased by her parents and siblings - John Sheckells, Dorothy Bausam, and Floyd Sheckells, Jr.

A memorial service will take place in Harford County at a later date.

Condolences to the family may be made at www.brinsfieldsfuneral.com

Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., Leonardtown, MD.