Mary Michael Winn

Named after her mother Mary and father Michael, Mary Michael (Brzezinski) Winn was born on October 20, 1945, in Margarita on the Atlantic (Caribbean) side of the Panama Canal Zone where she grew up with her parents Mary Edmonia (Dignam) Brzezinski and Michael Stephen Brzezinski; her older brother Mike, Jr., “Skip;” her older sister Patricia; and her two younger brothers Richard and James.

Known to almost everyone as “Mickey,” Mary Michael and her siblings enjoyed playing in the backyard where their father would graft orchids onto the mango tree and grow colorful hibiscus. Mickey loved tropical flowers, especially birds of paradise; her favorite color was green, and she enjoyed collecting seashells and driftwood. Her mother held festive birthday parties for Mickey each October – sometimes with a Halloween theme. The family would go by ship every summer to New Orleans for vacation. Mickey attended St. Mary’s Academy, an all-girls school in Colón and was taught by European nuns in classes where Mickey and her sister Patty were two of the only Americans. Mickey then attended public high school in the Canal Zone and graduated in 1963.

She went on to Canal Zone Junior College where she earned an Associate’s degree in 1965. Then at age 19, following in her sister’s footsteps, Mickey transferred to Spring Hill College, a small Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama. It is here that she would describe in later years walking into an English class on John Milton and spotting a good-looking guy across the room, who turned out to be Harlan Harbour Winn, III, the man whom she would marry four years later. Both Mickey and Harbour spent the next two summers living in Tlaxco, a small village in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico, leading a group of college student volunteers through the Conference on Inter-American Student Projects, a Peace Corps-like organization. Mickey and Harbour graduated from Spring Hill College in 1967 – both with Bachelor’s degrees in English.

Mickey then enrolled at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, earning an MA in English in 1969, the same year she and Harbour would get married at the University of Houston’s ecumenical chapel on June 1st. A beautiful bride, Mickey wore a long flowing lace mantilla from her mother. Family and friends joyfully celebrated mass with them that day. Across their loving marriage, Mickey and Harbour would celebrate 55 wedding anniversaries together.

Mickey and Harbour both taught writing at the University of Houston, and after taking several courses in cultural sensitivity there, Mickey was in one of the first cohorts of white teachers who “desegregated” Houston public schools – teaching English to a class of Black middle school students. In fall 1971, because Harbour was starting a PhD program in English at the University of Oregon, Mickey and Harbour moved to Eugene where Mickey then worked as a secretary at Travelers Insurance – securing the job thanks to her friendly personality, incredible typing speed, and expert shorthand. In 1972 after a flat tire en route to the hospital and a generous ride from a stranger, Mickey gave birth to their first child Michelle Coogan Winn. In January 1975, the family moved – this time because Harbour accepted a teaching position at Oklahoma City University. They welcomed their second child Cristin Dignam Winn into the world in 1975 and the following year bought their first – and current – house, a two-story fixer-upper. Four years later, in 1979, they welcomed their third child Shawn Harbour Winn into the family.

Every year Mickey would involve the children in planning their birthday parties – they’d invite friends with handmade cards, bake and design their own homemade cakes, and play fun games inside and out. She would read books to her children, play board games with them, and sing them to sleep when they were young. To decorate for holidays, she would hang up the children’s art. She enjoyed celebrating Mother’s Day with her family at the rose garden and duck pond at Will Rogers Park. Mickey truly dedicated herself to her children.

As a family, each spring they would go to the Arts Festival in Oklahoma City. Each winter they would take road trips to Houston and San Antonio to visit extended family over the holidays, and each summer they would drive cross-country. In summer 2005, once the children grew up, the whole family – Mickey, Harbour, Michelle, Cristin, and Shawn – took a special trip to Panama, Mickey’s first trip back in decades and the one time she got to show her husband and children where she had grown up; they visited the San Blas Islands, home of the Kuna whose signature art form – molas – adorn the walls of Mickey and Harbour’s home to this day. It was the last trip they took together as a family of five, as soon thereafter their children started having children of their own. As their children started creating their own families, Mickey and Harbour travelled as a couple once again, setting out on several more international adventures, including trips to Ireland, England, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam. And every year for the last decade Mickey and Harbour have organized a family reunion near a national park or in another spectacular setting like the Oregon coast. Mickey made it to the reunion by Mt. Hood this past summer – her last.

In Oklahoma City Mickey served for more than a decade as a La Leche League leader – helping innumerable mothers to feel comfortable and confident with the “womanly art of breastfeeding.” When Shawn was still young, Mickey sold Discovery Toys so that she could have her youngest with her as she held home toy demonstration parties. All three children benefitted from playing with the vast array of educational toys – all while helping their mom learn how to play the games so she could better describe them to other parents. She also volunteered as a Camp Fire leader and offered all who entered her home wonderful hospitality. Signaling her open-minded acceptance of all people, she would say, with a smile, “Different strokes for different folks…”

For several decades Mickey taught English composition at two or three colleges at a time – she was the proverbial freeway flyer, driving from OSU OKC and Oklahoma City Community College to Rose State and University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). Around 1990 she herself enrolled as a student at UCO to earn her secondary teaching credential so she could finally settle down and teach English in one place – to high school students. She eventually student-taught for a semester at Bishop McGuinness, the high school that all of her children had attended – or would. Her first high school teaching job was at SAGE Alternative High School (1992-1997) where she appreciated being able to work with the students who needed the most support. After five years, she took a job teaching English at Northwest Classen High School (1997-2012) – a school so close to home that she could walk to work. There, she co-founded a college club with her colleague and friend Becky Feldman Standridge -- to support students applying to college, and every year she would hold a fundraiser selling Mardi Gras beads to raise money to award scholarships. She would also buy fun prizes and organize raffles at Back-to-School-Night to encourage families to attend. She was known at the school for working especially well with immigrant students for whom English was a second language, and many would take her classes. For years, she also taught English as a Second Language (ESL) to Spanish-speaking immigrants at St. Patrick’s Church where she was elected to serve on the parish council twice and also volunteered as an usher on Sunday mornings.

When she retired after 20 years in Oklahoma City public schools, Mickey became active in the Oklahoma Retired Educators Association (OREA) and once again raised scholarship funds – this time for student teachers – by soliciting contributions from local merchants for silent auctions. She also volunteered at Cleveland Elementary School even while continuing to teach high schoolers part-time in concurrent enrollment courses throughout the city – up until 2019. Across the years Mickey touched the lives of numerous young people.

Mickey took great joy in becoming a grandmother to each of her seven grandchildren. Together they would bake cakes and play games like Boggle and UNO, and Mickey would give them little gifts and make mini-photo albums of their visits. In 2019 Mickey and Harbour took their two oldest grandchildren on a trip down the Amazon River in Peru, making lasting memories – from a monkey rifling through Mickey’s hair to a large scorpion by her bed one night that she single-handedly took out by slapping it with her slipper.

Mickey enjoyed doing crossword puzzles and jigsaw puzzles, playing solitaire, watching late-night comedians, and reading novels, especially Tony Hillerman mysteries. She practiced yoga with friends and exercised with a personal trainer up until last year. For lunch, she liked to have pimento cheese and olives on sourdough. She enjoyed a good chocolate shake. She would make taco casserole, broccoli quiche, pineapple sausage stew, and homemade pizza with whole wheat crust for dinners across the years. She always loved Elvis and his music; she would joke he had been her boyfriend! She put up with Harbour’s jokes too. She had a joyful sense of humor, a sweet smile, a kind heart, and a warm embrace. She loved her family with all her heart. Mickey was an incredibly compassionate and loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, teacher, volunteer, leader, and friend.

Sharing such a deep long-lasting love, Mickey and Harbour both showed tremendous strength throughout the past five years when Mickey was living with Lewy Body Dementia and Harbour was her dedicated primary caregiver. Mickey died following Ash Wednesday in the wee hours of March 6, 2025, at home with her husband – just as she wanted.

Mickey was preceded in death by her parents Mary and Michael, as well as by her older brother Skip.

Mickey is survived by her husband Harbour who has been by her side faithfully across six decades; by her three children Michelle (Olison Baptiste), Cristin (Chris Reyes), and Shawn (Alison Winn); by her seven grandchildren Gavin, Sienna, Savanna, Braelyn, Harbour, Celina, and Michael; by three of her siblings Patty, Dick, and Jimmy; by her in-laws Ann, David, and Barbara, as well as Paris & Beau and Ashley & Jane; and by nieces, nephews, and cousins too numerous to name.

Mickey, Harbour, Michelle, Cristin, and Shawn are forever grateful for the generosity of the wider community. The family would like to sincerely thank Mickey’s neurologist Dr. Matt Ryan for his patience and support, her devoted caregiver Ana Luz Knudsen, and the amazing Loving Care Hospice team: Gaye, Julie, Connie, & Logan.

May Mickey's spirit of unconditional love live on in the hearts of all of us fortunate enough to know her.

In lieu of flowers, consider a donation in Mickey’s name to Dream Action Oklahoma (https://www.daok.org/) – a community-based organization that advocates for immigrant rights or UNICEF (https://www.unicef.org/ ) – a United Nations agency that supports children worldwide or a scholarship in her name https://gofund.me/f7c3908d. 

All are invited to a memorial mass at Saint Patrick’s Church, 2121 N. Portland Avenue, Oklahoma City at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 5, 2025 – followed by a luncheon.