Spokane's Sit and Be Fit host Mary Ann Wilson

Spokane's Sit and Be Fit senior workout show's host, Mary Ann Wilson passed away on Wednesday.

Section:Gallery

Thu., Nov. 6, 2025

Mary Ann Wilson performs during the opening sequence of her “Sit and Be Fit” gentle exercise show in August 2014 at the KSPS studio in Spokane. Wilson died Wednesday at the age of 87.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
Mary Ann Wilson reads her notes as Trista Jordan applies makeup and hair styling before taping Wilson’s “Sit and Be Fit” gentle exercise show, Aug. 14, 2014, at the KSPS studio in Spokane.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
A monitor in Jordan Cole's audio engineering room at KSPS studio displays live and taped views of Mary Ann Wilson's Sit and Be Fit gentle exercise program, Aug. 14, 2014, in Spokane, Wash.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
In this 1997 photo, Mary Ann Wilson leads a " Sit and Be Fit" class at Canterbury Court.

The Spokesman-Review Photo Archive
In this 1995 photo, Mary Ann Wilson greets her guests, Vera Rodman, Margaret Richer and Ruth Hartzell all from Park Place retirement community in Spokane.

The Spokesman-Review Photo Archive
In this 1995 photo, Mary Ann Wilson rehearses for her show Sit and be Fit.

The Spokesman-Review Photo Archive
The four children of Mary Ann Wilson, shown in photo, gathered Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025 to talk about their mother, the founder and star of the public TV show "SIt and Be Fit" who died recently at age 87. The siblings are, clockwise from bottom left, Amy Jo LeLaFleur, Rob Wilson, Jim Wilson and Gretchen Cowan. Wilson raised her kids as a single mother after their father died of a heart attack in 1971.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Revi
Family photo from the 1980s shows Mary Ann Wilson, right, and her four children, left to right, Gretchen, Rob, Amy Jo, and Jim, whom she raised as a single mother after their father died unexpectedly of a heart attack around 1971. Wilson, a registered nurse, later started the public TV program "Sit and Be Fit", where she would lead older people, or those with disabilities, through seated exercise sessions which played on hundreds of TV station across the country for more than 35 years.

Courtesy Of The Mary Ann Wilson