BERNE — Mary Ellen Jannsen, better known in the community as “Elderberry Mary” because of her famous preserves, died on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, at St. Peter’s Hospice Inn, with her daughter Christine by her side. She was 75.

Mrs. Jannsen was born on March 25, 1940, the daughter of Helen Card Rees and Jacob Roscoe Delbert Rees.

She had six children, and, after she was widowed, remarried, to Martin Jannsen, in 1975.

She met him while working at his business, the Student Prince Restaurant.

It was through her husband that she discovered her love of elderberries and her passion for making jams and jellies.

The couple took a trip to Germany to visit Mr. Jannsen’s mother, and on the trip, she made elderberry juice.

“That gave us the idea to make elderberry juice,” she told The Enterprise in 2011. “I have beautiful elderberries growing all over my yard. In spring, I feel the Lord smiles on me. They’re beautiful white flowers, and they die down and turn into a little green ball, and then they turn orange, then red, and then black.”

She participated in local craft fairs for many years, at the Bronck Museum, Ten Broeck Mansion, Shaker Heritage Museum, and sold her goods at Indian Ladder Farms. She also sold them in Windham Mountain for more than 25 years.

Mrs. Jannsen’s daughter, Bridget Tucker, described her mother as “quirky and bubbly.”

“Her beauty really shone through her personality,” she said.

She described her mother as being loving and kind, making special desserts for her children each night, and being at every one of their activities and events.

In addition to making jams, jellies, and pickles, she had a passion for ceramics, and owned a kiln. She painted pottery with her children and grandchildren.

She belonged to the Lake Onderdonk Association, and was fiercely protective of the place she lived for more than 45 years.

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Mrs. Jannsen is survived by her brother, Charles Rees, and his wife, Beth, of Wisconsin; her sister, Bonnie Derkowski, and her husband, Donald, of Schenectady; her children, Christine DeLong, and her husband, Gene, Lawrence Peek, and his wife, Jo-Ann, Charles Benninger, and his wife, Cherie, Bridget Tucker, and her husband, Kevin, and James Benninger, and his wife, Jennifer, and Helen Crane; and several grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and great-grandchildren.

Her husband, Martin Jannsen, died before her, as did her brothers, Charles and Clarence Rees.

The family thanks everyone from the Westerlo Rescue Squad and the “kind and caring” staff at St. Peter’s Hospital and Hospice Inn.

Funeral services were held at the Fredendall Funeral Home in Altamont. Interment was at Evergreen Memorial in Schenectady.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, 3 Oakland Ave., Menands, NY 12204.

— Anne Hayden Harwood​