Mary Hilan Irby was unafraid when she graduated from this life on June 25, 2026, confident in 2 Corinthians 5:1: “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” She was eager to shed the earthly body that had served her well for 79 years in favor of the eternal home promised through the mercy of her Savior, Jesus Christ.
Mary Hilan had known this security since she was saved as a young girl, and had grown into a life of faithful service to the church. She began as a G.A. leader right out of college, became a longtime Sunday School teacher, spanning all ages, eventually founded and led a women's Bible study for more than a decade, and devoted herself to committees, women’s ministries, and to supporting her husband in his service as a deacon. At home, she taught her own children the love of Christ, doing all in her power to secure their places in the home promised by 2 Corinthians. She loved her three children deeply, and never was there a more devoted wife.
Few took on the surges and swells of life as blamelessly and selflessly as Mary Hilan did. She was conceived a Marler under the palms of Camp Pendleton to a Marine – a veteran and the camp's football coach – and his wife, a survivor who may have died as a child of Scarlet Fever, but instead thrived to graduate from college, a contextual anachronism, and dabbled in hunting, fishing, and farming for fun. At birth, doctors believed tragedy would befall either mother or child, but both pulled through.
In her early years, Mary Hilan's father took the family throughout the Mississippi Delta, crisscrossing from one high school coaching assignment to another while also furnishing colleges and universities, until leukemia interrupted their journey. He chose the quiet college town of Ruston, Louisiana, which he had come to know through his work, as the perfect place for them to live on without him. He died when Mary Hilan was seven, and she took it in stride – a trawler surviving a squall into a sunrise on calmer seas.
As intended, the pastoral town of Ruston became the setting for the Marler girls' young lives, joined soon after by a kind and steady stepfather. There, Mary Hilan, a social butterfly, met her husband, Wes, in dance classes when she was in fifth grade, and their lifelong bond was set. Wes and Mary Hilan were pure Americana, children of an idyllic Mayberry. After years as award-winning dance partners and great friends, their first date was the Jamboree Dance; he was the football captain, and she the Jamboree Queen. They were married on June 17, 1967, and graduated from Louisiana Tech together on Leap Day, February 29, 1968.
Wes was an engineer, and together they embarked on an exciting venture to Cocoa Beach, where he worked as a rocket scientist for NASA, and they welcomed their first child, a son named Robert. Soon after, Wes accepted a job with Texas Instruments, and they settled in the northern suburbs of Dallas. Though work led them to Huntsville, Alabama, and Middletown, Rhode Island along the way, Texas always called them home, serving as the backdrop for most of their 59-year marriage.
Two more children followed – Hilan and Matthew. Mary Hilan worked as a substitute teacher, a sales representative, then an administrative assistant at a construction company and an interior design showroom, but motherhood was always her calling. Shetirelessly invested in her children and their spiritual and educational development, supporting their extracurriculars, anchoring them through every move, every school change, every new and old friendship – from championship games to hard losses, from breakups to social victories, from school plays and dance recitals to playoff games and due papers – and encouraging them to follow their passions. No dream was off limits.
And in the small spaces where she took what she could for herself, Mary Hilan loved books; she sometimes read one a day. She loved her dogs and cats, of which there were always many. She loved to dance, taking ballet and tap from an early age, throughout her teenage years. Most of all, she loved people, God's favorite creation, delighting in making them smile, encouraging them, and being part of a boundless family that goes on after death.
Mary Hilan Irby was born on July 1, 1946, in Greenville, Mississippi, to James Truman and Mary Hilan Marler, and was later blessed with another incredible father in Robert EdgarJackson. She was saved as a child at Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, Louisiana. Mary Hilan passed away at 6:36 p.m. on June 25, 2026, just days before her 80th birthday.
She was reunited in death with her parents, Truman, Hilan, and Bob; her son, Robert; grandchild, Logan; father-in-law, Wesley; mother-in-law, Marna; and brother-in-law, Paul.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 59 years, Wesley Childs Irby IV; sister, Carolyn Meyer; children, Hilan and Matthew; grandchildren, Taylor, Lottie, and Sadie; daughters-in-law, Shari and Kelly; sister-in-law, Becky; and nieces, Marnie and Susan.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, July 3, 2026 at Meadows Baptist Church, 3001 Los Rios Boulevard, Plano, Texas 75074. Following the service, a procession will make its way to Ridgeview Memorial Park for a committal service.
The family will receive friends during a visitation on Thursday afternoon from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home, 2525 Central Expressway North, Allen, Texas 75013.