CLARKSVILLE — Mary Ann Hendrickson, a woman devoted to her family and her community, was both a fighter and a giver. She died on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015. She was 74.

“She’s a fighter,” her daughter, Darlene Stanton, said in 2012 after her mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer; she said then that her mother has beaten cancer five times before — thyroid cancer, twice; liver cancer, twice; and ovarian cancer.

Mrs. Hendrickson was also a giver. “She is selfless,” Mrs. Stanton said of her mother. “She’s always visited sick friends and neighbors, taken them food and flowers. She makes them feel better.”

Mrs. Hendrickson was born in Albany on July 10, 1940, the daughter of Robert and Julia Heidelmark. Her father worked for the railroad and her mother was a personal cook for Governor Nelson Rockefeller until he became vice president, Mrs. Stanton said.

Mrs. Hendrickson was the oldest of five children. “She was a mom for my grandmother,” said Mrs. Stanton.

As a girl, Mrs. Hendrickson liked school and she loved to sing in choir and to dance. She also loved flowers. She was an avid gardener all her life. “She had the most beautiful gardens in Clarksville,” said her daughter.

Mrs. Hendrickson also kept her passion for dancing her whole life. Mrs. Stanton remembers how, when she was a young girl, after dinner, her mother would roll back the rug and dance with her kids. She loved Big Band dances, the jitterbug, and rock and roll.

She and Donald Hendrickson grew up in the same neighborhood in Albany’s South End. They met on a blind date and celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary the week before Mr. Hendrickson died in April 2007.

Mr. Hendrickson, for a living, drove a fire engine and was an emergency medical technician. Mrs. Hendrickson worked a variety of jobs, including as a nanny for a number of families. “Lots of those kids came to see her when she was sick,” said her daughter. “It was a beautiful time. They brought their own children to see her.”

The Hendricksons raised their three children — Darlene, Donald, and David — in Clarksville at the foot of the Helderbergs. Their family was dedicated to community service.

Mrs. Hendrickson was the first woman to be a Cub Scout leader, her daughter said. She was also active in the Clarksville Community Church and in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies’ Auxiliary.

“She was everybody’s mom,” said Mrs. Stanton. She’d feed neighborhood children and comfort them when they were hurt or sick.

“She was a hard worker. My parents were poor when we were young. But they worked hard and made a good life for us,” said Mrs. Stanton. “She taught us that, even if you don’t have money, you can make your home beautiful.”

In addition to filling their house with flowers, Mrs. Hendrickson had a knack for turning others’ trash into treasures. “Saturday was trash day,” said Mrs. Stanton and her mother would bring home discarded items that she’d repair. One treasure was an oak dresser someone had thrown out, which Mrs. Hendrickson refinished and restored to its former glory.

“She instilled in us that you have to work for what you want,” said Mrs. Stanton.

She also modeled the importance of caring for others. “She’d visit the sick and the invalids and leave flowers and vegetables,” said Mrs. Stanton. “Some of them were people who never had visitors.”

She made food for the volunteer firefighters in the Onesquethaw department and, while Mr. Hendrickson drove the Onesquethaw ambulance, “she was his helper,” said Mrs. Stanton. “They always rode together.”

“She was fun and loving and giving,” said Mrs. Stanton, “and she thought of others before herself.”

 When Mr. Hendrickson, who was known as the mayor of Clarksville, died, over 1,300 friends and family members gathered to pay their respects. Mrs. Hendrickson wore her rescue squad jacket as she rode with her husband’s coffin in the Onesquethaw ambulance as church bells rang and neighbors saluted from their driveways.

“The ambulance will be her hearse, too,” said Mrs. Stanton, “when she is buried in the spring.”

For Saturday’s service, Mrs. Hendrickson planned ahead, her daughter said, picking out her casket and funeral flowers so others wouldn’t have to fret over the details. “I want to shop,” she told her daughter, for clothes she would be laid out in. As they shopped, Mrs. Hendrickson’s sense of humor was intact. She looked at one price tag and told her daughter, “I’m not buying a dress for $279 to die in it.”

As her daughter admired a black outfit shot through with gold for herself, Mrs. Hendrickson said, “I want to wear what you wear. It would be a hoot to do the mother–daughter thing.”

And so, on Saturday, they both will wear matching outfits of black shot through with gold.

Mrs. Stanton concluded of her mother, “She was always loving and supportive. She encouraged us to be our best. She always said: You can be anything you want to be, so go out and do it.”

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Mary Ann Hendrickson is survived by her children, Darlene Stanton, David Hendrickson, and Donald Hendrickson Jr.; her granddaughter, Brittany Hendrickson; her sisters, Vicky MacFawn and Betty Rettinger; her brothers Fred Heidelmark and Robert Heidelmark; many nieces and nephews; and special friends Debbie and Paul Lobdell and Geo Henderson.

Calling hours will be on Saturday, Jan. 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Meyers Funeral Home at 741 Delaware Ave. in Delmar. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies’ Auxiliary will hold a service at 1:30 p.m. followed by a short service.  The burial will be held in the spring.

All are invited back to the Clarksville firehouse located on Plank Road in Clarksville for a luncheon.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Veterans of Foreign Wars 7062 Ladies’ Auxiliary, Post Office Box 13, Clarksville, NY 12041, or to the Onesquethaw Volunteer Rescue Squad, Post Office Box, Clarksville, NY 12041, or the Albany County Sheriff’s Hilltown Kids Christmas, Post Office Box, Clarksville, NY 12041

Cards of condolence may be sent to Darlene Stanton, Post Office Box 13, Clarksville, NY 12041.

The family thanks the Women’s Cancer Center at St. Peter’s Hospital, Dr. Timothy McElwrath, Dr. James Puleo Jr., the Hospice Inn at St. Peter’s and the special nurses there, Cindy and Elizabeth, as well as “all the special friends who took her to appointments and helped her on her journey.”

— Melissa Hale-Spencer