Martha Mease Martha Evelyn Mease passed away unexpectedly in

Dec. 25—Martha Mease Martha Evelyn Mease passed away unexpectedly in her home in Rio Rancho on March 26, 2024 at the age of 76. Martha was born in Freeport, Illinois, attended Genoa Kingston High School, and then moved to Chicago after graduation. She found her way to San Francisco, worked for a property developer, and then in the late 1970s as an administrative assistant at the NASA Hastings Law School Research Project. Over the next several years, she earned her paralegal certificate, which qualified her to work at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she represented the city in small claims court trials and performing litigation investigations. In 1989, she moved to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, where she investigated accidents involving the city’s transit systems. The job provided her with an opportunity to obtain a private investigator’s license, which she used after she retired from the city in 1997. In 2000, she left San Francisco for Carson City, Nevada, and began a new career working as a contractor for the Centers for Disease Control, conducting in-person surveys across the western states, including California, Nevada, and New Mexico. She was also a Census Enumerator for the Department of Commerce. After she fully retired, Martha moved to Rio Rancho and enjoyed traveling to Hawaii and several European destinations, taking many photographs along the way that adorned the walls of her home. Throughout her life, Martha had cultivated a love of acting, appearing in several stage plays, and later regularly attending the Santa Fe Opera. She was an avid collector of hats, rocks, and fossils of all kinds, she designed and sold jewelry, and she had an extensive cache of beads and beading supplies. Martha also acquired a dog, Scarlett; the two of them were unreservedly devoted to each other. Everyone who met Martha remembered her. She had a gift for teasing out the absurd from commonplace situations, she laughed easily and heartily, and she particularly enjoyed playing an occasional gag or practical joke on an unsuspecting friend or acquaintance. She was eccentric but organized, empathetic but supremely practical, curious about others but reserved about herself, generous with her time but had few close friends, and fiercely private. She was happiest sitting on her veranda in the early morning hours, sipping a cup of freshly brewed strong coffee, admiring the view of the nearby mountains. She is survived by a brother, Jon, of Sycamore, Illinois; a sister, Gwendolyn, of Freeport, Illinois; and several nieces and nephews. At her request, her remains will be scattered along with Scarlett’s in the desert east of Carson City.