Mary Elizabeth Levergood, née Bailey, 89, of Dearborn, Michigan, returned to the house of the Father on Thursday, January 7, 2021 due to the consequences of emergency abdominal surgery in August 2020. She passed away at the Canton, Michigan home of her son Richard and daughter-in-law Susan surrounded in her last days by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

For the past seven years, she had been a resident of Henry Ford Village in Dearborn, Michigan, where she made many friends and enjoyed the warm welcome the community there offered.

Born in Kingsville, Ontario and raised on a dairy farm settled by her Royal Empire Loyalist forebears, she graduated from Kingsville High School and worked at Ontario Hydro before moving to Detroit, Michigan with her then-husband John. She retained close ties to family and community in Kingsville and will be buried near her parents there after the end of the health crisis.

She was baptized at the Epworth United Church in Kingsville, which members of the family of her mother Gertrude had helped to found as a Methodist Church after they had been evangelized by Wesleyan circuit riders. She looked forward to the annual Bailey family reunion, when the descendants of her father Edward and his 13 brothers and sisters would gather.

She raised her children in Royal Oak, Michigan, where she had many close friends and was a member of St. John’s United Methodist Church. Later in life, she worked at Standard Federal Savings, until her retirement.

After her retirement she moved to Canton to be near her son Richard and daughter-in-law Susan and their three grandchildren, who were a constant presence in her life and source of amusement and meaning. When her son Richard took a job with the Ford Motor Company, she switched her loyalty from General Motors products to those of Ford.

She attended many stage performances of her granddaughter Becca, followed the adventures of hunting and rock climbing of her grandson Jacob, and was delighted when her mischievous grandson Matthew decided to pursue a career in the ministry. She would often visit Chicago, stay at her daughter’s, and attend the concerts in which her son-in-law played symphony bass. A lover of animals, especially dogs, she welcomed into her home the canine companions of her children and grandchildren.

During her retirement, she made several organized trips to Great Britain and Europe. During a trip to London in 2004, she and her son Thomas were the guests of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, who hosted them to a lunch of sandwiches and fruit in his study at Lambeth Palace.

She is survived by her children Joan (Douglas), Thomas, Richard (Susan); her grandchildren Matthew (Hillary), Rebecca (Kyle), and Jacob; and her great-grandchildren Briella, McKinley, and Callum. She was preceded in death by her parents Gertrude (Wigle) and Edward Bailey, her brothers Donald, Jack, and Robert, her sister-in-law Utah and her father and mother-in-law Vern and Sara (Stewart) Levergood.

She is remembered fondly by her sisters-in-law Marie Bailey and Muriel Newman and nieces and nephews Sandford (Susan), Suzanne (Ron), Paul (Mandy), Catherine (Rupert), Ellen (Peter), and Mary Lynn (Paul).

A memorial service will be organized after the medical emergency. Memorial gifts could be made in her name to an institution led by her son Thomas, The Lumen Christi Institute, 1220 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 or https://www.lumenchristi.org/donate