Mary Elizabeth Olin

Mary Elizabeth Olin, aged 91, died peacefully on July 28, 2026 after a fall and a resulting short illness.

Mary was born in Duluth in 1935 and attended Lakeside Grade School and East Junior-Senior High School from which she graduated in 1953. During high school, she worked in her father’s law office and at Oreck’s and Wahl’s stores in downtown Duluth, jobs which utilized her interests in both business and fashion. She graduated from Carleton College in 1957 with an English Literature degree, having spent her junior year in Scotland at the University of St. Andrews. After college, she worked for four years in Minneapolis at General Mills. She married Joel Mitchell in 1958. The couple returned to Duluth in 1961 and during the next years Mary was busy as a housewife, mother, and community volunteer.

After her divorce in 1975, Mary returned to school at UMD for a year before beginning a new career as a management trainee with the DMIR Railway Company, where she worked until her retirement in 1993. In 1981, she married David Olin, and together they grew a rich life filled with companionship and shared interests, including building their home in the woods in Knife River, sailing on Lake Superior, skiing, and traveling throughout Europe and South America.

She believed strongly in giving back to her community and served on the boards of the St. Louis County Historical Society, the Junior League of Duluth, the United Way, the YMCA, the Human Development Center and the Duluth Area Affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She was a longtime active member of Pilgrim Congregational Church and the Duluth Woman’s Club.

Mary delighted in connecting with others. Friends and family remember lively dinners around her table, passionate bridge games, spirited book club discussions, intimate small-group gatherings, and conversations that ranged from the latest streaming show to politics and current events. She never stopped learning and found joy in growing spiritually, reading, walking, hiking, skiing, dancing, and traveling to visit both family and new places.

Mary leaves behind a family and circle of friends who will remember her curiosity, intelligence, resilience, generosity of spirit, and remarkable gift for making people feel seen and heard.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Paul and Constance (Jensen) Hamerston, her son, Anthony S. Mitchell, her husband, David Olin, and her former husband, Joel T. Mitchell.

Mary is survived by her daughter, Kathryn (Alan) Freemond; her twin granddaughters, Allison and Lillian; her stepdaughters, Susan Olin; Julie Olin-Ammentorp (Warren); and Sara (Robert) Codrea; her sister, Kathryn Schultz, and her niece, Ann Schultz, Duluth.

Thank you to the caring staff at Aspirus St. Luke’s Hospital and Benedictine Living Duluth.

A Memorial Service will be held at 1:30pm August 17 at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2310 East Fourth Street, Duluth, MN. For those who cannot attend in person, to watch the service live, visit the Pilgrim Church website on August 17 and click the blue link on their homepage: https://www.pilgrimduluth.org/

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to Union Gospel Mission of Duluth https://duluth-ugm.org/, 219 E. 1st Street, Duluth MN 55802 or NAMI Minnesota, St.Paul MN https://namimn.org/, : 1919 University Ave. W., Suite 400, St. Paul, MN 55104. Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home, 600 E. 2nd St. Duluth, MN 55805. 218-727-3555.