Mary Bray

Mary Lou Bray, 83 years old, passed away Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau following a lengthy respiratory illness.

Visitation will be Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001, from 3-7 p.m. at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Funeral Chapel.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2001, at First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau. The Rev. Paul Kabo of First Presbyterian in Cape Girardeau and the Rev. Dr. Paul Currie of Caruthersville, Mo., will officiate. A private burial service will take place at Memorial Park.

Mary Lou was born June 16, 1918, at Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis where her parents Olga Huters Wood and Frederick Wood lived at the time.

She is survived by her husband Paul Bray and daughter Nancy Bray, both of Cape Girardeau; cousins Bill Disher of San Diego, Calif., and Bill Huters of Durham, N. C.; many loving members of the Bray family; and countless friends of all ages.

At the age of three weeks, Mary Lou moved with her mother from St. Louis to Cape by way of the Mississippi River steamboat "Cape Girardeau."

Her father was a telegrapher in the Cape Western Union office until his untimely death when Mary Lou was only one year old. Raised by her mother and an aunt, Irma Huters, Mary Lou was the fourth generation to live in the Huters family home on Broadway in downtown Cape. She became a lifelong resident of Cape, except for the years she traveled with Paul wherever he was stationed in the Army Air Corps.

Mary Lou attended Washington School, where her mother was the librarian, Central High School (a 1934 graduate) and Southeast Missouri State Teachers College. She earned a BS in education in 1938.

Following graduation from college, at the age of 19, she began teaching seventh and eighth grade English and history in Illmo, Mo. In this time period, she also worked as a dispatcher at Harris Air Field, now the Cape Airport site.

While in Illmo, Mary Lou met her husband-to-be who was a banker in nearby Fornfelt and a regionally renowned baseball pitcher. After a four-year courtship, they were married June 27, 1942, in Santa Ana, Calif., at the home of the air base chaplain.

While traveling with her husband during WWII, she often worked as a Western Union employee, following in her father's footsteps.

In 1944, Mary Lou returned to Cape to give birth to their daughter and wait for Paul to complete his military service. She became a homemaker and active member of her church and community while managing a career first on staff at the Cape Public Library and then at her church.

Besides her family and friends, Mary Lou's other lifelong passion was the First Presbyterian Church of which she has been a faithful member 74 years. Her commitment to that church's ministry and growth began in her youth and as an adult was evident through her years of devoted service as a Sunday School teacher and circle leader and as church secretary for 10 years. She also helped coordinate a women's prayer group that for over three years met weekly in her home and was a most meaningful time in her journey of faith.

Community and volunteer activities have included: The Otahki Girl Scout Council, the Historical Society and Heritage Ball Committee, Tri Psi Sorority for Tri Delta mothers, Easter Star, the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary of which she is a life member, and over 2,500 hours of service as a Southeast Volunteer in the Cancer Center and at the lobby desk. For six years she and her husband coordinated the Meals on Wheels program for Southeast.

A talented and prolific writer, Mary Lou has used that ability through the years in support of community causes and volunteer projects and to keep lines of communication open among her friends near and far. Mary Lou has spent her life expressing wit and wisdom, kindness and concern, friendship and faithfulness whether through her pen, her spoken words or "her eyes that speak though her tongue be silent," (This was a quote with her photo in the 1938 SEMO yearbook).

By family and friends, the sparkle in her dark brown eyes and her feisty eyebrows will be fondly remembered, her courageous spirit and strength of character admired.

Memorial contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation for Meals on Wheels, the Chateau Girardeau Foundation or the charity of your choice.