Mary Caroline Stewart was born in Tahoka,
Texas, February 16, 1925, the daughter of Loucile Crawford Stewart and
Robert Marshall Stewart. She grew up on a farm in Lynn County, and
home-schooled by her mother, our beloved Mawie, Mary was well ahead of
her peers when she demanded she be allowed to join the other farm
children she saw daily collected by the school bus, and she was off!
Mary attended rural schools, and one teacher she remembered fondly
having a great impact on her was Juanita Parker, a direct descendant of
the great Quanah, a Chief of the "Empire of the Summer Moon."
Mary graduated from Tahoka High School in 1941.
Mary
continued her education at Texas Technological College (now University)
achieving the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Spanish in 1945. A
polyglot, Mary was conversationally fluent in several languages and
halting in more. (She was the young girl who translated the letter from
the French family for the family of the West Texas airman shot down over
France, relating the circumstances of their brave young hero's demise.)
Mary pursued a Master's Degree at the National University of Mexico in
Mexico City and at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where she was
awarded a fellowship and where she taught Spanish. It was there she met
George Gail Heather, also a graduate student.
Mary typed George's
dissertation submitted in pursuit of his Doctoral Degree, which he
received in January 1946, and the two were married April 15. The lucky
bastard!
George's academic career took them to Hays, Kansas,
Denver, Colorado, Tallahassee, Florida and, ultimately to Lubbock,
Texas, where George served as Dean of the School of Business at Texas
Tech for 18 years. There Mary met her lifelong best friend and sister
she never had, Sellie Shine, wife of Henry, a head of the Chemistry
Department at Tech. In 1969 the family relocated to Omaha, Nebraska,
where Mary began a career in commercial travel. In 1972, the family
moved once more, to Indianapolis, Indiana, where Mary continued her
career, handling group travel and managing travel agencies. Following
George's death in 1977, Mary came home to West Texas, continuing her
work in travel and visiting countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle
East, Africa, South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Mary hosted a
travel segment on a Lubbock television news program for some time.
Guiding tours to these exotic places around the world, Mary was also
able to see old friends from long before:
Mary saw things no longer can we see
warmly welcomed where are forbidden to we
visited places that no longer be
only one facet of the jewel that was Mary
Mary
and George had five children: Robert Marshall Heather (deceased) of
Combine, Texas; Georgia Heather Bowen (deceased) of Forney, Texas;
Lizabeth Heather Powers, MD of Canton, Ohio; John Gilbert Heather, JD of
Combine, Texas; and James Stewart Heather of Lubbock; also six
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Mary was a peerless
rifle shot, instructed from five by her father, our beloved Pawie, a
hero of the Great War. Mary had a flair for driving and loved her big
motor standard shift Mustangs. An excellent cook, Mary normalized foods
to the family's palates that others charitably referred to as too
exotic. Mary celebrated familiarity with all the fauna and flora,
especially the unusual, from tarantulas, snakes, and alligators to feral
baby jackrabbits. Yes, we have seen baby pigeons. Mary was a member of
The Order of the Eastern Star, the First Methodist Church of Lubbock, a
past president of the Lubbock League of Women Voters, and a recognized
member of Mensa. Mary was an extremely talented artist, for many years
illustrating the annual Christmas cards sent by hundreds to friends and
faculty throughout the world, depicting the maturation of our family,
and both wrote and illustrated two children's books privately published
for her grand and great-grandchildren sharing her early life and love of
the beauty and wonder of her world of the West Texas farm and dry land
she knew so well: "The Little Girl" in 2011, and "The Long Dry Spell" in
2012. A consummate seamstress, Mary contributed many tireless hours
creating costuming for Lubbock Little Theatre productions.
Mary
was a bright, much-loved, and beautiful soul whose wisdom, abilities,
wit, and humor will forever be missed by her friends and family.
Mary
Caroline Stewart Heather answered the call to her Reward January 14,
2022, in Lubbock, Texas. Her autobiography "Texas Girl" was published in
2015.