Mary Ellen Prime

Our amazing, witty, kind mother died after a bout with pneumonia on July 21, 2022, in Oakland, CA.

She grew up in Vallejo with two brothers, Edwin and Alfred, the middle child of Jacob Washington Vines and Essie Grace Bryan Vines.

After graduation from UC Berkeley, she taught English to high school girls in Kanazawa, Japan, from 1948-1951. She went on to Pacific School of Religion, where she met and married Ralph Prime. She had three children over eight years, and juggled parenthood, teaching, and the difficult requirements of life as a minister’s wife.

Her working life became truly rewarding when she spent 20 years teaching English as a second language in Stockton to Southeast Asian refugees. Her students loved her, always choosing her class when they could, and passing on the word to other students about what a good teacher she was. Her co-teachers loved her, too.

A passionate reader who also loved theater, architecture, gardens (though not gardening), and classical music, she often said she wished that she had been a librarian because she loved reading and information. Mom lost her beloved husband and companion in

November 2017 but kept plugging along, “content,” as she called it, until an April 2022 hip fracture, followed by pneumonia. That was finally enough for her, at almost 95 years old. M’rellen was predeceased by her husband, Ralph, and by her youngest daughter, Monica, as well as both of her brothers. She is survived by Marian, Lynn, Asa, Geneviève, Masako, Yoshiko, beloved cousins, nieces, and nephews, all of whom miss her terribly and are grateful for the joy she brought to our lives with her energy and many interests. Donations to the Mercy Brown Bag Program (3431 Foothill Blvd, Oakland, CA 94601) or to Grace Cathedral (1100 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94108) would be appreciated. She willed her body to the UCSF Willed Body Program, and would encourage others to consider doing the same.