Mary D. Pearson

Mary D. Pearson, 89, passed away Wednesday, September 16, 2015. Service: 10 a.m. Saturday, September 19, at North Side Baptist Church. Interment: Dicey Cemetery. Mrs. Pearson will lie in state from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday at White's Funeral Home, 130 Houston Avenue. Mary loved talking on the telephone to friends, family and neighbors. She often said it was because she grew up before they had phones on the ranches where she spent her childhood. She talked on her first phone when she went to work for Southwestern Bell, from which she eventually retired with over thirty years as a switchboard operator. At the Pearson Ranch, Mary surrounded herself with mementos and souvenirs that reminded her of all the things she had experienced in 89 years of life. Mary loved talking about her ranching history and that of her husband, William "Fant" Pearson, who passed away in 2004. Mary loved telling about her bed, in which she was born in 1926 in a blizzard in Bowie, Texas, and her lifelong collections of everything from teapots to Teddy bears. After Fant's passing, Mary continued to raise cattle on their land. As she slowed down in the last few years, caring neighbors helped her tend the cattle. But she was always busy and always creative. She was a member of a poetry society for artists, authors, and poets; and was proud of a book of her own poetry she published. She also was an award winning artist. Survivors: Sister, Lajuana M. Himes of Weatherford; niece Cathey Rudolph and husband, John of Carrollton; nephews, Robert Himes and wife, Edwina of Weatherford; and Terry Himes and wife, Sonia of Paradise; six great nieces and nephews; nine great-great nieces and nephews; close friends Shari and Harry Scoggin, and many other wonderful friends from church, Southwestern Bell, and the innumerable clubs and charities in which she participated. In lieu of flowers, her family would appreciate donations to North Side Baptist Church, the church she loved and supported.