Funeral Services for Mary Ann White will be 3:30p.m. Saturday March 3, 2012 at Moore Funeral Home in Arlington. Burial will follow at Moore Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be 6:00 – 8:00p.m. Friday evening at the funeral home. She was born on March 29, 1921, in a home in Grand Prairie, Texas, to Margaret Goetsell Ballard and Boyd Ballard. She passed from this world on February 29th, 2012. Mary Ann graduated a “Gopher” from Grand Prairie High School. She then worked for five years at Southwestern Life Insurance Company. Mary Ann, as she was called, went on a blind date arranged by her sister, where she met her future husband, Reed White, originally from Charlie, Texas. They married In April of 1941. Reed served in World War II and upon returning, the couple settled in Grand Prairie and briefly in Forth Worth. Son Don was born in Dallas and later son Boyd, in Fort Worth. The family moved to Wichita Falls and later, Lakeside, TX., where husband Reed became the new city’s first mayor. Twenty years after leaving Grand Prairie, the Whites followed their children and returned to the Metroplex in 1970, locating this time in Arlington. As a descendent of one of the original founders of La Reunion, which became Dallas, Mary Ann often spoke with pride of this Belgium heritage. The same ancestor, James Goetsell, moved on westward with others and helped establish what is now, Grand Prairie. Mostly, she identified with her Irish lineage and had an unrealized dream of visiting Ireland. She was a lifelong Catholic. Mary Ann was preceded in death by her parents, infant daughter Dana Margaret, husband Reed, and sister Barbara Pearson. Survivors include son and daughter-in-law Don and Kay White of Grand Prairie, son Boyd White of Arlington, granddaughter Janie White of Dallas, granddaughter Lindsey (and Shea) Reyenga of Grand Prairie, grandson Jeff (and Gina) White of Lewisville, sister Betty Ogles of Mabank, sister Nell (and Ralph) Abernathy of Campbell, and numerous nieces and nephews.
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