The following, written by Sundance Director Missy Amrein after Mary Manley's death, was printed in the April 1985 Newsletter. It is a fitting end to this chapter of Sundance history.
It is March, the promise of summer is in the sun. As I sit in the new sunshine this morning I have been trying to fold back the foggy memories of the past years since the beginning of Sundance. It is not easy, so many things have happened over all those years, but through all those happenings there has been one constant in Sundance 500-Mary Manley.
When we first became aware of the Sundance organization, it was a fledgling group of line breeders. Over the years, other organizations to promote a particular line of horses have coma and gone. When Sundance arrived on the scene, there were no other active line breeders' associations. We weren't too excited at first, because it is so difficulty to provide a fair opportunity for all members of a promotional association to benefit equally. But we were interested because here, at last, was a source of information on horses with known Appaloosa pedigrees. So we wrote to the secretary of the newly formed Sundance group.
Mary's answer came promptly with a sales list, description of the Sundance 500 Association and a history of the horse which the association honored. When she sent us the Sundance packet, Mary invited us to join Sundance as Charter Members. We were impressed by the apparent fairness and obvious enthusiasm with which Mary ran her office and, since we had found a Sundance stallion through her efforts, we decided to support her by joining.
That first year Sundance took form as a leader in the preserving the Appaloosa horse, not just the Sundance bloodline. There were ups and downs throughout the many subsequent years. There have been times when members doubted that Mary was doing the best job possible and there were times when the praises for her work were overwhelming. Through it all Mary just carried on. Fairness and honesty were her guides and she remained always humble, but certain in her own mind that she was doing her best.
Sundance 500, though an organization of all the members, truly run by the voting members, owes its continued success to Mary.
It was Mary's belief that everyone had a right to their own ideas, opinions and objectives, which preserved the integrity of our Association. We, the members of Sundance, can best honor Mary Manley by carrying on, in her spirit of fairness, the business of our Association. Let us never forget that through her hard times, her illnesses and sorrows, as well as the good times, Mary always gave more than her share to us so that we might be served by Sundance 500 International.
Missy Amrein SDNL April 1985
