Mary Ann Delores (Quickstad) Rahman was born December 18, 1934, in Waseca, Minnesota. Mary was the fourth of five children born to Arthur Quickstad and Myrtle (Tollefson) Quickstad. Mary's early childhood was comparable to that of most Depression-era kids in small-town middle America. She was a good student, excelling at math and English. But she would often recall the hard times of being in a family of seven, one income needing to stretch for everything. So to help out, the kids all took babysitting jobs or the age-old "walking beans" jobs. She still found joy with her siblings, neighbor kids, and her mom despite the hard times. She'd talk about loving to visit cousins in the country with their horses, to play the piano, sing, and dance in her youth, but only keeping one of those hobbies for life.

Mary graduated from high school in 1952 and not long after, moved to Pennsylvania to work on a horse farm both in the barns and in the office. She loved her time out east but returned home five years later when her oldest sister, Luvine, passed away at 33. She worked office jobs around Waseca and Owatonna for a few years, rooming with friends and close enough that she could walk to work while trying to save money for an eventual move to St. Paul around 1960. There she found bookkeeping work during the day at an apron factory while taking night classes at the U of M for accounting.

That work led to her landing her dream job: in the accounting department at KSTP-TV/Radio & Hubbard Broadcasting in the Twin Cities. It was the last full-time job she'd have as she retired from there 35 years later, though she continued to help out with different projects even in retirement. She also bought her first house in 1970 in South Minneapolis. She loved working on the yard, giving her home curb appeal before the term was known. And boy did she love to dance! She took belly dancing lessons at a community workshop in the 70s, but she and her best friend, JoAnn, were regulars at the Twin Cities singles dances on Friday and Saturday nights. She would still shake a tail feather in the living room into her 80s!.

Her work for Hubbard Broadcasting, though, was everything to her, from everyday balancing the books to the forensic accounting when they were trying to catch someone skimming off the company. She and her supervisor, Linda, were VERY successful at doing their jobs. Mary loved to talk about the start of satellite broadcasting, as she was at KSTP when they launched United States Satellite Broadcasting and later CONUS, which helped revolutionize broadcast news everywhere. She loved talking about the relationships she forged there and rising to the position she did, coming through as a single woman in the 1960s. All the extra she had to go through to get a credit card, a home loan, and car repairs, even without a husband. Stuff like that will make a person stronger than they could imagine, and it certainly did for Mary.

After Mary "retired", she moved to Rush Lake, north of the Twin Cities, in Rush City. The quotes around retired are because she really didn't. She continued to take on projects from Hubbard Broadcasting. She also became involved with the local Lutheran church, serving not only on the funeral teams making sandwiches and salads, but also helping do the bookwork, staying after service to help count donations. Not long after, she also took over as Treasurer of the community she lived in. Mary always enjoyed the work. Long hours closing books for the year, to traveling to other Hubbard properties in Arizona and Florida. She LOVED being an accountant.

She eventually found she also enjoyed going out on the pontoon or just fishing off the dock and bringing up a large batch of sunfish. And the casino, 20 minutes from home, called her name often to come play the penny slots and enjoy the buffet with friends. Even being diagnosed with COPD in 1999 and cancer in 2004 didn't really slow her down! She eventually sold off the house and moved to Sioux Falls, SD, in 2016. Again, she got involved with the church and Active Generations, making friends, serving on boards, and falling in love with her computer, which was a retirement gift from Hubbard. COVID finally slowed her down with her health issues and not being able to be around people as much. A bad fall in January 2022 eventually led to her moving to an assisted living facility in Sioux Falls, but proving you should never count out a stubborn Minnesota Norwegian, despite breaking her pelvis in seven places, on three sides, she hit rehab hard enough at 87 to be able to walk with the aid of a walker until not long before her passing.

Mary passed peacefully in the early morning hours of April 16, 2026 at 91 at Edgewood Prairie Crossings in Sioux Falls. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters, Luvine and Janice, and her brothers, Maynard and Donald. She is survived by her son, Dan, and several nieces and nephews. She didn't want a service because she felt she outlived everyone who would attend. Her headstone is placed in her hometown of Waseca, and her son will scatter her ashes at some of her favorite places. She showed everyone to never discount a stubborn Minnesota Norwegian!