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Very sad news this week out of the reality television universe:
Mary Schmucker, the matriarch on the popular TLC series Breaking Amish, passed away at her home in Pennsylvania on Friday, March 28.
She was 65 years old.
Mary’s son, Andrew, spoke to TMZ and confirmed the death of his mother, telling the celebrity gossip website that Mary had briefly been hospitalized for a few days before finally losing her battle with colon cancer.
Andrew also told this outlet that the rest of the family has been notified of Mama Mary’s death… and added that he was on his way to Pennsylvania from his residence in Arkansas.
Mary was diagnosed with colon cancer back in 2022 and subsequently underwent surgery.
Two years later, this past November, her daughter-in-law announced that the star had placed in hospice care, meaning she was mostly focused on remaining comfortable for the remainder of her life.
Mary made her TLC debut on season 1 of Breaking Amish in 2012 before returning for the spinoff series Return to Amish in 2014.
The program followed a group of Amish individuals who left their traditional communities in order to experience life in the outside, non-Amish world.
Schmucker continued to be a central figure until she announced in a March 2022 Instagram Live that she would be leaving the show.
“I am not coming back on TV, but a lot of the others went back. I would love to come back on TV, but there’s too many issues that won’t work for me,” the Pennsylvania native said at the time.
“I would like to come back, but come back as we are doing now. I feel we should do a story like what happened after the show, where we are now and what happened to us, so people know, but they don’t want to do that.”
Just one month later, Mary revealed her cancer diagnosis.
“I just want to give a little update,” she wrote via her private Tupperware sales Facebook group in April 2022. “As you know I have colon cancer, and I am scheduled for surgery this month.”
Schmucker most remained out of the spotlight in the wake of this procedure, only returning to Facebook briefly in August 2024 to re-share a post about how schools should teach kids how to write in cursive.
She also re-posted a TikTok video from daughter-in-law Rebecca Schmucker asking for assistance raising funds for relatives who lost their one-year-old son after a battle with heart issues.
In November, daughter Rebecca wrote online:
“I’m making a prayer request for mom. She’s not feeling good the last few weeks and can’t keep anything down and she’s having trouble eating. She is on hospice now…
“Her pain has been so bad and they are helping with that. If you could, flood her with positive messages and pray for her to be comfortable and pain free. Thank you!”
We send our condolences to those who knew and loved Mary Schmucker. May she rest in peace.
