Obituary of Mary S. Deaver

Mary Deaver passed away peacefully on Sunday July 14, 2024 at the age of 97, as she completed a life filled with love, joy and giving.

Visitation: 10:00 a.m. Friday July 19, 2024 at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home, 4350 River Oaks Blvd.

Funeral Service: 11:00 a.m. Friday, July 19, 2024 at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.

Interment: Mary will be laid to rest at Greenwood Memorial Park with Bill Deaver, her husband of 45 years.

Memorials:  In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorials be given to the Presbyterian Night Shelter of Fort Worth or a charity of choice.

A fourth generation Fort Worth girl, Mary Claude Scott was born November 9, 1926 on Fort Worth’s old southside to Henrietta (Whitsel) Scott and Claude T. Scott.  She was educated at DeZavala, Daggett and Paschal and went on to TCU, where she majored in Geology and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1948.  At TCU, she was a Favorite her junior year and was President of her senior class.  On Graduation, she went to work for Magnolia Oil in Dallas and a year later, on assignment in West Texas, she met Bill Deaver.  They were married at First Methodist Church in Fort Worth on June 24 1950.  She and Bill, in the oil exploration business, moved about 40 times in the next five years to towns all over Texas and the South, and had three children.  In 1958 they moved back to Fort Worth to 4220 Whitfield, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

Over the course of her life Mary was an enthusiastic and accomplished participant in the life of her community.  She and her family joined St. Stephen Presbyterian Church in 1958.  She was a member of the Geological Society of America, was active in the TCU Women’s Exes, of which she served as President, was in the Woman’s club of Fort Worth, served on the board of the Fort Worth YMCA, and was a volunteer, substitute teacher and active advocate for New Lives School of Fort Worth.  She volunteered at the Presbyterian Night Shelter and for several years moderated a ladies’ Bible study Circle for St. Stephen.  For ten years she taught biology at Castleberry High School.

Mary was a funny, fun and opinionated woman, dedicated to her family, who radiated joy.  Her life had three constant themes:  courage, curiosity and love.  She was fearless all her life in all her endeavors, embarking on new adventures without hesitation, whether it was in her twenties keeping house and moving all over Texas and Oklahoma with three small children, embarking on a teaching career in her fifties, or vacationing with Bill all over Mexico when neither spoke a word of Spanish.  She read and thought deeply and had extensive knowledge of many subjects:  geology and earth sciences, biology and life sciences, anthropology and human history, religion and the Bible, especially New Testament history, and literature, fiction and theater.  She was wide-ranging in her interests and always eager to learn.

Above all, Mary spread love all around her.  When her children were growing up, kids all over the neighborhood would always bring her any wounded or strayed or abandoned animal they found, birds or reptiles or rodents and especially dogs, and she loved them all.  She gave generously of her time to the Presbyterian Night Shelter, to the YMCA, to New Lives, and to her church.  She took care of her aging relatives, her children and grandchildren, her friends  and colleagues, and she had time for everyone.  Mary had the true heart of a servant; she dedicated her life to making other people’s lives better and easier.

Mary is survived---and will be dearly missed and always loved---by her children, Scott, Catherine and Danny; her son-in-law, Rick Gollahon; and her grandchildren, Will, Emily and Kate; and by countless people whose lives she touched.