Marty Cryderman’s last request was that her friends remember her with a potluck and Neil Diamond’s “Hot August Night.”

She seemed to enjoy the album as much as she loved cooking, according to her family, who remember her as a hard-working, independent-minded woman and natural entrepreneur.

Martha “Marty” Cryderman died Nov. 6 at age 66.

She owned and operated nine different businesses — including two restaurants and a coffee stand in Toutle over the past 30 years.

“She was very independent,” according to her son Ron Cryderman, a Silver Lake resident.

“Very passionate, tenacious, intelligent,” added his wife, Stephanie Cryderman, Marty’s daughter-in-law.

Marty operated the The Duck Pond, a Toutle hamburger stand, from about 1988 until the early 1990s. She also owned the Toutle Village Restaurant from about 1991 to 1994, operating it with her longtime companion, Wayne George of Silver Lake.

Marty also ran The Mud Flow espresso stand for a couple of years in the mid-90s. She also owned Mud Room Ceramics — which she started in her Toutle home — and most recently sold Christmas tree ornaments featuring Mount St. Helens ash.

Marty was known for giving her all to each of her business pursuits.

“She never did anything halfway,” Stephanie said.

When she operated the Toutle Village Restaurant, Marty offered customers a full breakfast buffet on the weekends and a seafood buffet on Friday nights. “She was thinking big city in a small town,” Ron Cryderman said.

The same applied to Marty’s home cooking, he noted: “If there were 10 people coming over for dinner, she’d cook for 30.”

Marty’s strong will helped her beat lung cancer in 1992. She was cancer-free for 17 years until it attacked her brain this year.

“She fought for her life,” Stephanie said.

Marty moved to Ariel in 2006 to live in an apartment on her son Steve Cryderman’s property. She spent several years working at gift shops in the Toutle Valley, most notably the North Fork Survivors’ souvenir shop.

Marty loved debating politics. She was known for standing up for the underdog. She disliked big corporations and “she liked to take care of people,” Stephanie Cryderman said. Once, Marty even intervened to help a woman out of an abusive relationship, giving the friend a place to stay until the friend got back on her feet.

“I admired her for that,” Stephanie Cryderman said. “She wanted strong women. She wanted women to stand up for themselves and be independent.”

Marty spent many years raising three boys on her own while her husband, John, served in the Navy.

She married John Cryderman in 1961. The family moved all over the U.S. and Europe until John retired in 1977. The couple divorced in 1986.

The family eventually moved to Toutle to be closer to relatives in the Silver Lake area.

“She wanted to be around family after being a Navy wife for so many years,” Ron Cryderman said.

Marty, her daughter-in-law said, “was a matriarch in every sense of the word. … It was a huge loss, and we’re kind of stumbling” without her.