Mary Kellett-Long, first of the 'Reuter Wives' in Reuters World

Mary will be deeply mourned by her many friends in Reuters. She bore her long illness with amazing fortitude and grace. Her lovely, sympathetic sense of humour never seemed to desert her. I first heard of Mary soon after I joined Reuters in 1968: she was, as I recollect, the first of the “Reuter Wives” to be featured in an eponymous feature in the Reuters World house magazine. When I was posted to Bonn a few years later, Adam was the chief representative and Mary could not have been kinder or more helpful to myself and my wife. She even “fostered” our baby son for three weeks while my wife helped out as a copy taker at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and I was working all hours back in the Bonn bureau. In the years after that, Mary and Adam became firm family friends. I will miss her greatly. ■