Mary Alma Joyce Harbin was born on February 20, 1922 in her beloved hometown of Paoli, Oklahoma. She graduated from Paoli High School (whose reunions she attended into her 80's) and from the University of Oklahoma where she received a degree in Business Administration.
Mary passed away in Dallas, Texas on January 14, 2018. Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. on January 18, 2018 at Waterview Church of Christ Chapel, 1409 N. Waterview Dr., Richardson, Texas 75080, and the interment will be at Lawnview Cemetery in Cordell, Oklahoma the following day.
She was predeceased by her parents, Dee F. and Mary Pendley; her brother, Dee F. Pendley, Jr.; and sister, Bernice McNeely; her husband, Edward; and her daughter, Betty Edens. She is survived by her son, Edward Jr. and wife, Patti; her grandchildren, Michael Edens, Anne-Marie DeWitt and husband, Justin and Kristen Babovec and husband, Lee; her great-grandchildren, Mallory Trumpfheller and her husband, Ryan and Eden Babovec; her son-in-law, Eugene Edens; and loving nieces and nephews.
Mary met her husband Edward at OU. They married when the war began, and afterwards moved to the oilfields of West Texas, where he was a geologist. She was his partner in sickness and in health. When he fell too ill to work, she became the family bread-winner and the faithful employee of Metropolitan Life in Midland, from which she retired as Branch Administrator in 1987.
After Edward's death, she moved to Hillsboro to be with her daughter, Betty, and after Betty's death, to Dallas to be with her son, Edward. He and his wife Patti had the honor of caring for her in her final years.
Whatever happened, she advised that "It'll all work out." And so it would. Even as she passed under the shadow of Alzheimer's, she lighted the way with her gentle sweetness and an assurance of the promise that "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy; Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." She was the last of her generation of friends and family; we will miss them, and Mary most of all.
Memorial Donations in Mary’s honor may be made to Waterview Church of Christ or a charity of your choice.