Mary Anne J. Nash

Mary Anne J. Nash, a long-time resident of the Atlanta, Georgia area, passed away on February 8, 2020, in Dallas, Texas, after a long battle with lung cancer. She lived a great life of more than 90 years as a Christian in making a great marriage and building a great family.

She was born in 1929 in Atlanta and graduated from Russell High School where she was Captain of the Cheerleader Squad and a high academic achiever. Mary Anne was smart from an early age and was promoted from the 1st to the 3rd grade in elementary school due to her academic prowess.

She married Harold R. Nash in 1948, a fellow graduate of Russell High, after he returned from serving in the U.S. Army. Mary Anne completed a secretarial course at Georgia State University. To put Harold through college, the two of them would deliver paper routes for The Atlanta Constitution in the early morning hours; Mary Anne would then work while Harold went to college at Tech, and then they would deliver paper routes for The Atlanta Journal in the late afternoon. Working together, the two of them were able to finance Harold’s education as an Electrical Engineer (with help from the GI Bill) even with the additional expenses of having their first child born during the spring of Harold’s freshman year and their second child during the spring of his senior year. Mary Anne was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Husbandry Arts degree from Georgia Tech for putting her spouse through college. She later worked at Tech as an executive secretary in the Georgia Tech Athletic Association.

Mary Anne was a stay-at-home mom for their four children and the taskmaster for the family. She was a high-volume reader, going to the East Point Library every Tuesday afternoon, typically checking out six to eight books which she would read and return the next week. She took her children with her and got them into the same pattern of intensive reading. She was an excellent seamstress. She enjoyed crocheting, was a talented quilter and assembled a large collection of Depression Glass. She and Harold enjoyed participating in a Square Dancing group.

She was one of the original members of the Headland Heights Methodist Church and later a member of the First Methodist Church in East Point. In her later years, she was a member of the Hopewell United Methodist Church in Tyrone, Georgia, and attended the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas.

She moved to Dallas, Texas, more than a dozen years ago and lived at The Forum, a senior living community. She was active there with a lot of friends. She was known for being the personal computer installation and troubleshooter advisor, and for being a talented and aggressive Bridge partner. She was also the go-to source for book recommendations due to her volume reading habits.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold Nash, and by all four of her younger siblings: Richard, Winnie Jo, Marie, and Susan. She is survived by her four children: Ron Nash (Susan), Mike Nash (Annette), Deborah Nash, and Mary Alice Nash Ivey (Arthur); ten grandchildren: David Nash (Tiffany), Stacey Nash Thompson (Tobe), Jennifer Nash Tench (Bryant), Mike Nash, Jr. (Julia), Stephen Nash, Andrew Willingham (Colette), Brian Willingham, Benjamin Ivey, Joshua Ivey (Rocio), Mary Beth Ivey Matusaki (Oscar); and fourteen great-grandchildren: Andrew Nash, Noah Nash, Lilly Nash, Georgia Nash, Ashton Thompson, Brady Thompson, Katherine Tench, Andrew Tench, Amelia Nash, Natalie Nash, James Willingham, Stephen Ivey, Dominic Matusaki and Royce Matusaki. Every member of the family joined her in Dallas last Thanksgiving week to celebrate her 90th birthday at a series of events.

Funeral services will be held at The Forum, 7831 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas on Friday, February 14th at 10:00 AM. The family will be available for visitation at the H.M. Patterson & Son Funeral Home at their Oglethorpe Hill location at 4550 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia from 6 PM to 8PM on Monday, February 17th. She will be buried alongside Harold at the Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in College Park, Georgia, in a private family service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests any donations in honor of her be given to the Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Distinguished Professorship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in care of The Georgia Tech Foundation, 760 Spring Street NW, Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30308.