If you have driven past the corner of SE Third Street and Reed Market Road lately, then you might have noticed that Mary Barackman, Bend’s dancing pizza promoter, is back in action.

After a brief hiatus following open heart surgery, the 66-year-old Barackman retired from her job with Little Caesars. But she is certainly not done dancing on her corner, which has made her a Bend celebrity.

A year has passed since Barackman had surgery to replace a faulty heart valve — a procedure that likely saved her life — and while she is still recovering, she periodically gets back outside, bringing smiles to people as they drive by.

“I just miss the people too much,” Barackman said. “I love everybody … It’s my happy place.”

She took the part-time job in 2010, along with a second part-time job as a cashier at a Dollar Tree, which she later quit to take care of her aging parents. Her shifts at Little Caesars lasted about five or six hours and her enthusiasm on her corner started to get noticed.

Madison Durand, the general manager at Little Caesars, said when she first met Barackman, she was a little kid, but she was instantly tuned in to Barackman’s radiating positivity.

“She just had heart surgery like semi recently, and this was just so important to her even though it seems like such a silly thing for some people,” Durand said. “She lives to be on that corner waving to everybody and seeing them smile and that is one of the main things she cares about.”

Barackman said she will continue dancing on her corner because it gives her strength and she missed it dearly. Now, instead of the Little Caesars guitar people might remember from before, she now dances with a pink one instead.

“If I didn’t have the corner, I think I’d be pretty depressed,” Barackman said.

She said prior to her surgery she could be out there dancing for hours, but now, she only goes out when she’s feeling up to it, and typically spends about an hour on the corner.

She said she is building up her endurance, and plans to keep dancing for as long as she can.

“It’s kind of like God is tapping me on the shoulder certain days and I feel really good. And I head out there,” she said. “Someone might need a wave or a hug. A smile.”

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“I don’t like to bring anyone down,” she said, tearing up a bit. “And I think it’s because I need it as much as they do. So when I throw it out and they send it back, it helps me.”

Dancing is also what the doctor ordered, she said. Regular exercise is part of her recovery, and the team of doctors who watch out for her recommend she continue dancing.

“They want me to get out there,” she said. “There’s no sense in having heart surgery if you aren’t going to keep your heart up. That’s the best way to be thankful to your surgeons and doctors, is to do all you can to make it stronger.”

Barackman explained that listening to her music and playing her guitar allows her to really get into the dancing. Also, the fact that people are driving by and not just staring at her, makes her less self conscious.

“They are constantly moving and are not staring at me for very long,” she said with a grin. “So I can do whatever I want because they are going to keep going. If they just sat there and looked at me I couldn’t do it.”

Some of her favorite music to listen to on the corner while she dances includes Carrie Underwood, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Luke Bryan and occasionally some Led Zeppelin. She has all kinds of music from multiple eras loaded onto her MP3 player, she said.

Barackman said she doesn’t have a favorite guitar player, because she grew up listening to a variety of music. She was into Carlos Santana when she was in high school. She had a Santana poster in her room, something her parents were not very happy about. And she would dance at home to artists like Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and Lawrence Welk.

“I was raised with so much,” she said. “I listened to it and watched my folks dance so I would get up and dance at home ever since I could remember.”

Barackman took ballroom dancing when she was younger, but also went to her fair share of hoedowns and enjoyed square dancing.

Barackman is a Bend native through and through. She was born and raised in the same house and said she remembers when they used to have the Bend Water Pageant in Drake Park on the Deschutes River. Her family used to live a block away from the park, and she loved when there would be blocks lined with barbecue stalls serving up ribs and chicken.

In junior high, she remembers having parties at her family’s home, and her favorite thing to do in her teenage years was to “flirt,” she said laughing. The flirting makes sense when you consider her personality while she’s on the corner dancing.

“You just have to let the kid out once in a while,” she said “Let your childhood come out, be silly and have fun. It draws more people when you do that.”

Barackman explained she has fans from North Carolina, Ohio, New York and even Canada who stop by her corner when they are in town to chat and give her a hug. She said she notices when locals drive their out-of-town friends to her corner to see her while she’s dancing.

It’s the community aspect of it all that really brings her the most joy. And she wanted to emphasize how grateful she is to all the people who brought her meals for months after her surgery, and to those who drove her to her doctor’s appointments.

If it wasn’t for the community, she said, she wouldn’t have made it through those tough times. She also wanted to send her gratitude to her doctors.

“I wanted to thank them for all they’ve done for me and what they still do for me,” she said. “And for giving me such a great opportunity to go out and be crazy.”