Mary Catherine (McCoy) D’Arcy was my grandma, and that pretty much makes me one of the luckiest people to ever live.

All of my many cousins feel the same way.

Grandma Mary was simply the best. She was smart, funny and active right up until her death less than two months before her 98th birthday. Every day we got to see Grandma Mary was a day when we would smile and laugh.

I still get asked about Grandma Mary at least once a week. I think I am known more for being one of her grandchildren than I am for being a writer, podcaster or political candidate.

She was born in Butte Oct. 12, 1920, and lived in the Mining City until she passed on Aug. 20, 2018.

Grandma Mary really wanted to make it to her 100th birthday. She wanted to be the oldest person in the McCoy family. She also wanted to celebrate her centennial with a huge party at the Butte Civic Center.

She said she was going to charge everyone $100 to enter. Only her favorite nurses and priest were going to get in for free. Her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren all had to pay, she said.

She also wanted to make it to 100 so she could get 100 percent off of her birthday dinner at the Montana Club. She went there every year on her birthday for those insane discounts.

Of course, her 100th birthday, Oct. 12, 2020, would have fallen in the middle of the COVID pandemic. There were no parties in those days. So, maybe Grandma Mary was one of the lucky ones to check out before that global nightmare hit us all.

Grandma Mary was a classmate of the great Eso Naranche in the Butte High School Class of 1938. She said Naranche was a nice boy.

“He wasn’t an ass like some of those other boys,” she once told me.

You had to be really something to reach not-an-ass status with Grandma Mary. Whenever I’d talk to her on the phone, she would usually end the conversation by saying, “Oh, you’re an ass. Goodbye.”

My grandma met my grandpa Jerry D’Arcy at the Shanty Bar in Butte. They were married on April 10, 1939. Grandpa Jerry passed away in 2011 after 72 years of marriage.

Grandma Mary said that is a long time to wait on somebody, and Grandpa Jerry countered that it was a long time to take care of someone else’s daughter.

On April 11, 2018, Ron Davis let me host Partyline on KBOW. So, I had Grandma Mary on as my guest for the full hour. I got the idea when I heard Ron interview his mother, Mama Davis, a few months earlier.

This interview is the first time I started thinking about hosting my own podcast. So, I think I owe Grandma Mary a huge thank you.

Thank you also to Ron for giving me permission to use the audio from his radio station. He was a great boss for 10 years, and he is an even better friend.

Listen in to hear Grandma Mary talk about the best fireworks show in the history of Butte. Listen as she talks about Charles Lindberg and Franklin Roosevelt coming to town. Listen as she talks about meeting Grandpa Jerry.

Listen in as she denies that my cousins Marci and Jody were not her favorite grandchildren. Listen to hear that she was clearly lying about that.

Today’s podcast is presented by Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warrantee.