Mary Bowman Christensen, Pahrump pioneer who moved to Manse Ranch in 1948, dies at 88

A member of a pioneering family of the early days of Pahrump has died.

Mary Bowman Christensen passed away at her Reno home on Jan. 8 at the age of 88.

Christensen, a native Nevadan and lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was raised in Logandale.

Daughter JoLynn Worley said her mother and father, Lyle, who passed away in 2011, lived a very interesting and rewarding life while in Pahrump during a time when Native Americans largely populated the valley.

In 1948, she married Lyle Christensen, and they moved to the Manse Ranch in Pahrump, which had been previously purchased by her parents, Elmer and Elizabeth Waite Bowman.

In 1961, the couple bought a 264-acre portion of the Manse Ranch. They eventually moved a wood-frame home from Las Vegas to a site on CAAS Street and operated Christensen Aerial Application Service for more than 20 years.

Worley said her father was the pilot, while her mother drove an old International Harvester water truck, which served as the support vehicle.

She noted that farming and agriculture dominated the local economy at the time.

“Farming really continued to grow once the Bowmans were on the Manse Ranch,” she said. “My dad started as a crop duster in Pahrump for cotton and alfalfa fields. And it was really my mom’s father, Elmer Bowman, who established electricity to the valley, as well as the road from Las Vegas over Mount Potosi. He was very instrumental in that.”

When not toiling in the dust on the valley floor, Worley said her mother enjoyed displaying her musical skills at church.

“My mother was also a musician who played the organ for her church,” she said. “Generally, her days were filled with taking care of five children and the house, as well as helping my father with the farm work. I am so glad that she was able to live a full life. My parents were true pioneers of the Pahrump Valley.”

Christensen was also elected and served as chairman of the Nye County School Board in the late 1960s.

After roughly 50 years of farming in the community, the couple sold their farm and moved to Reno.

The area is now part of the Mountain Falls development and golf course.

Worley said surviving family members are doing as well as can be expected in the wake of their mother’s death.

“We are holding up pretty well,” she said. “She was not necessarily suffering from an illness at the time of her death. She did of course have some health problems like most people her age. It wasn’t until the last month of her life that she had a deteriorating condition with her heart. The doctor said heart failure was the cause of her death. My father was buried at the Chief Tecopa Cemetery and my mother will be buried next to him.”

Funeral services for Christensen are scheduled for 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Manse Springs Ward of the LDS Church, located at 5461 Manse Road.

Burial will follow at the Chief Tecopa Cemetery on East Street.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes