Mary Ellen Yuhas Hagner, 83, of Bala Cynwyd, passed away on April 25, 2025, at home. She was born August 6, 1941, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of Katherine Shoup Leith and Francis Leith. As a child she was active in many musical groups playing the clarinet, which established her lifelong love of music. She was also an excellent student and in her free time enjoyed trips to the beach. Mary Ellen graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1959 and went onto Emmanuel College in Boston to earn a bachelor’s degree in French. After college she worked for the National Security Agency in Washington, D.C. where she met her future husband, John Michael Yuhas. They married in 1965 and had two daughters, Katherine and Elizabeth, who is in the above photo. John’s work took them to Bar Harbor, Maine, Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Albuquerque, New Mexico before they finally settled in Bala Cynwyd.
After John’s death in 1984, Mary Ellen returned to school and got a master’s in journalism from Temple University. She put this new training to good use as marketing manager for Kelly Maiello Architects in Philadelphia, where she contributed to the firm’s success for 24 years and rose to the position of associate.
In 1987 she married John Benedict Hagner and acquired four additional children. Their combined families now boast 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Together they enjoyed numerous travel adventures and spending summers at their camp on Joe Indian Pond in the Adirondacks. In addition to her work, Mary Ellen was dedicated to the communities where she lived through her volunteer efforts with the League of Women Voters, Bala Cynwyd Library, Abramson Committee at Penn, The Philadelphia Antiques Show, poll judge at local elections, and the Cosmopolitan Club of Philadelphia. She was a fabulous cook, and everyone looked forward to being invited to dinner at her house or enjoying her contributions to potlucks.
Mary Ellen was a member of Saint Matthias Church in Bala Cynwyd, where a funeral mass was held on May 2 to celebrate her life and bring closure to those who loved, knew, and admired her.
