A native of West Virginia, Mary Kocher has been a resident of Palmerton for 73 years and has made an indelible mark on the borough.

Her beautiful paintings of the town and its landmarks have a combined style of realism and impressionism. Several of them adorn the walls of the Palmerton Public Library."I see the paintings finished in my head," Mary said. "It's just a matter of putting it down on paper."Born in 1921 in West Virginia, Kocher came here when she was 22 with her husband shortly after World War II. The late Richard Kocher was 13 years her senior and a chemist with the New Jersey Zinc Co. They made Palmerton their home and raised a daughter."I've been in every committee," Mary said. "People don't ask me much anymore."Mary first began painting as a teenager during the Great Depression. She and her sister took painting lessons together."We had two brushes," Mary said. "Lessons were every Thursday night. I just couldn't wait. I would just dive into the painting."One of her first paintings is a watercolor still-life of a violin propped up on books. It hangs on her living room wall. It's one of her favorites, because it reminds her of those art classes she took with her sister. There's also one hanging there created by her sister of a girl painting at an easel.After moving to Palmerton, Mary signed up for some painting lessons with a local woman named Selma Wilson. She joined an art club (eventually becoming a founding member of the Carbon County Art League in Jim Thorpe) and went to classes with Walter Emerson Baum of the Baum School of Art in Allentown.Her talent was soon noticed, and Walter Baum asked her if she would teach the younger children. Mary said she declined, because her daughter was only 2 years old. But in time, she would teach.When Lehigh Carbon Community College approached her about teaching, she was caring for someone else - her ailing husband. She didn't want to travel to the Allentown area, so LCCC arranged for the classes to be held at a location in Palmerton. The students loved the class, she said. And it is apparent that Mary did, too.Mary doesn't know how many pictures she painted, but does know they hang in banks, hospitals, libraries and many homes around the world. She gave many of them away as gifts.For Mary, she didn't paint to make a living, she lives to paint."I have to paint," she said. "It's something within your soul that begs to be released and you just have to let it go."Even at 94, Mary paints three hours a day. Her latest work is of the fruit market across the street from the library. The owners of the market asked her to paint it."At my age, I don't make any promises," she said, but she certainly intends to finish it.Also hanging on her living room wall are works painted by other artists, each a swap for one of hers."Where did the time go," Mary said. "I've done so much, gone to so many places and yet there is still so much to left to do. I don't have any regrets. I've had a wonderful life."Mary did say that, "If I had been born in a different time, I think I would have been an architect."She said she loves the art of architecture. That's why so many of her paintings are of buildings.