Mary "Sam" Melodye Price

Mary Olive Melodye Garrett-Price, affectionately known as “Sam” (Smart Ass Mary), took her final journey to her ultimate beach vacation in the sky on May 9, 2024, at the age of 69, after a valiant seven-year battle with ovarian cancer. Born on May 6, 1955, Sam brought light and laughter to everyone she met, and the world is certainly less colorful without her.

Sam is survived by her loving family: her son, Jason Price (and partner Joli Solop Shannon) and daughter Aimee Price-Kramer (and husband Sean Kramer), along with her grandchildren Drew Price, Holden Price, Keaton Kramer, and Brek Kramer, as well as her great grandchild Sienna; her partner and best friend of 20 years, John Basque, and his daughter Ashley Basque; and her ex-husband of 32 years, Thom Price. Sam was predeceased by her half-brother Richard Roy Fiala, her mother Mary Jane Foster, her father Melville Garrett, and her beloved Nannie Olive Walton Crane Foster.

Sam was a loving, caring, and creative soul with a heart always ready to help. As an amazing Army wife for 22 years, she navigated the challenges of military life with grace and humor. Her favorite things included vibrant colors, crafts, tropical flowers, dogs, flip-flops, and a good glass of wine or a stiff margarita. She had a keen sense of smell and cherished the scents of strawberry jam cooking on the stove, the ocean, pine trees in the mountains, burning jack-o’-lanterns on a cold Halloween, and Christmas trees.

Her culinary loves spanned Mexican and Italian cuisines, and she believed anything with gravy was worth savoring. Sam’s favorite places were as diverse as her interests, from the beaches of Florida and Hawaii to the mountains of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon, as well as Germany, California, and Massachusetts in the fall.

Sam found joy in crafting, art, photography, and spending time with her family. She loved talking to old friends, buying gifts for those she loved, pumpkins, shiny red valentines, turtles, and driving her 1997 Jeep Wrangler with the top down.

Though Sam has left us, her memory will forever linger in the beautiful crafts she created, the laughter she shared, and the sandy footprints she left in our hearts. Now, she’s eternally enjoying her toes in the water, her ass in the sand, basking in the sunshine of her ultimate beach vacation.