The Island’s beloved little red schoolhouse, Sunnybeam, and the generations of children who passed through its painted halls lost a dear friend last week. Maryienne “Nuky” Fellows, the woman who breathed life into Sunnybeam Preschool, died on Aug. 23. She was 90 years old.

Mrs. Fellows grew up on Mercer Island in the historic East Seattle neighborhood where she spent most of her life, surrounded by her grown children and grandchildren. Although she is best known for running Sunnybeam Preschool on the South end for nearly 30 years, her connection to Mercer Island goes well beyond Sunnybeam’s daisy-decorated doors. Her infectious smile has graced all facets of the community and will be remembered by many. She flashed this smile during more than one Summer Celebration parade, honored as an outstanding Island citizen. She shared it with friends at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, with PTA colleagues and teenagers on the Mercer Island High School ski bus, which she rode for years as a chaperone. Mrs. Fellows loved nature; in particular, flowers and birds. She boasted a beautiful garden and devoted much of her free time teaching at and leading tours through the University of Washington arboretum.

“She was a real nature-lover,” Islander Nile Clarke said of his aunt. “She went swimming in the lake early in the morning, every day of the year. There was a time when she’d skinny dip in the middle of winter. She just loved to do things like that.”

Born on May 22, 1919, to Elwin Leroy Vinal and Grace Tripp Vinal, Nuky, as she was affectionately called, was born into one of the Island’s pioneering families. The Vinals first moved to Mercer Island in 1908, where they settled a homestead on West Mercer Way. They left the Island on and off, but returned permanently during the peak of the Depression in 1929. While Elwin Vinal and his son, Richard, worked on building the family home, Nuky and her three siblings, Richard, Helen and Lee, lived in a tent on the property with their parents. Their home, which still stands today, was built into the hillside with a stunning view of Lake Washington.

Nuky attended elementary school a few blocks away from home at the East Seattle School, which is now the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club. Later she would ride The Dawn ferry to Seattle every day to attend Garfield High School. She graduated from Garfield in 1937 and enrolled at the University of Washington, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. Nuky married Art Hiltner in 1942. The couple had two children; Margaret, “Marnie,” and Steve. Art became ill with Leukemia and died at age 33. Three years later, the mother of two remarried John Fellows, who had two of his own children, Virginia Mae, “Ginny,” and Jack Fellows. She and her husband had a daughter together, Helen, “Beezie,” Fellows.

Shortly after marrying, Mrs. and Mr. Fellows built a small house on the water, below the Vinal family’s pioneering home. Mrs. Fellows lived in this house, tucked away under a cascading hillside garden, for nearly the rest of her life. The only access to the waterfront home was a long, switchback trail, with “who knows how many” steps, Clarke recalled. The family would hike the trail every day, and Mrs. Fellows continued the hike well into old age.

“That’s what made her so tough,” Clarke said. “She spent at least 60 years walking up hundreds of steps to the road.”

Throughout her lifetime, Mrs. Fellows watched as her extended family became somewhat of an Island institution. Her two sisters, Helen and Lee, married the Clarke brothers, George and Ted, who also grew up on the Island. They all raised children along West Mercer Way, and spent many weekends and holidays together as one large family. Nile Clarke recalled Thanksgiving celebrations, when the entire family — which grew to more than 30 individuals — would convene under one roof.

“We would always rotate Thanksgiving around the houses. It would often be at Nuky’s. She was always a very gracious host,” he said, adding that the family eventually grew so large that, one year, Nuky hosted Thanksgiving dinner at Sunnybeam for accommodation purposes. “Finally, we got to the point where we had to stop them. There were just too many people.”

Mrs. Fellows adored children. Indeed, her love for youngsters inspired a lifelong career. In 1957, Mrs. Fellows teamed up with Eleanor Wolf to found Sunnybeam Preschool in the historic Lakeview School building (Est. 1918) on the South end of Mercer Island. The two women spent many wonderful years teaching in the little red schoolhouse, surrounded by Mrs. Fellows’ fluffy Sheepdogs — Tupper, Winston and Corey.

“The kids loved those dogs,” said Margaret Stanley, a friend of Mrs. Fellows’ and former Sunnybeam teacher. “The kids would sit and pet the dogs, while Nuky read stories. It was all very special.”

Stanley, who taught with Mrs. Fellows throughout the 1970s and 1980s, recalled her congenial personality and love for the outdoors.

“There was nobody like her in the whole school at that time. Everybody liked her. She was just so amiable,” Stanley said. “She liked to be outside with the kids. That was most important in their learning, she thought — being outside and with Mother Nature, learning to cooperate on the swings and bars, taking turns and basic things.”

Between 1957 and 1984, generations of Island children bloomed at Sunnybeam under Mrs. Fellows’ care. Many returned as Sunnybeam teachers. Others sent their children to the preschool. Some of Sunnybeam’s earliest students have grandchildren who attend the school today. The institution is so beloved by Islanders that when Mrs. Fellows retired in 1984 (Wolf had passed away three years earlier), parents organized a board to keep the preschool going. Mrs. Fellows is still an honorary board member for Sunnybeam and attended most school events and class parties until the end of her life. She was present at the school’s 40th anniversary in 1997 and at its 50th anniversary in 2007.

Those who know her agree that Sunnybeam was Mrs. Fellows’ legacy. Like the school’s emblem, a smiling yellow sun, Mrs. Fellows’ personality was beaming. Her kindness touched those dearest to her and those she met in passing.

“She believed in the value of each individual. No matter who they were or what kinds of problems they had, she had a high level of acceptance and appreciation for every person,” Clarke said. “To me, that was her hallmark.”

Mrs. Fellows is survived by her sister, Lee Clarke, of Mercer Island; her sons, Jack Fellows (Louise), of Lake Stevens, and Steve Hiltner (Joleen), of Eastgate; her daughters, Margaret Lashinski (Al), of Okanogan, Wa., Helen Davis (Howard) of Pullman, Wa., and Yoko Suga (Ogawa), of Hiroshima, Japan. She is also survived by 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Fellows spent her final years at Sunrise Senior Living and Hospice, where she befriended many of her caretakers. While at Sunrise, she fought a short battle with cancer and Alzheimer’s. Her family would like to thank the staff at Sunrise for “all the wonderful care” they provided Mrs. Fellows in her final days.

A memorial service to celebrate the life of Mrs. Fellows will be held at Emmanuel Episcopal Church at 1 p.m. on Sept. 12. A reception at Sunnybeam will follow. The family has asked that those who knew Mrs. Fellows through Sunnybeam wear their Sunnybeam sweatshirts or “bright and happy clothes to honor Nuky.” In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Sunnybeam School or the University of Washington Arboretum.