Mary Jane Slaton Inge

A graduate of Murphy High School in Mobile, she continued her education at Bennett College in Millbrook, New York and the University of Alabama. She was active for many years as a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and served as Chairman of St. Margaret's Guild. She was affectionately known as "May May" by grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many of her children's friends. She was passionate about all things pertaining to Mobile, and was actively involved in its civic, cultural and social life. She was instrumental in the early development of the Mobile Opera, serving as a member of the Board of Directors and behind the stage as Costume Chairman for many years. She was Historian of the Mobile Opera Guild and served as Chairman of its Opera Ball in 1965. Throughout her life she was interested in the history and the historic preservation of the City of Mobile, and was a docent and volunteer with the Museum of Mobile, as well as the Mobile Carnival Museum. She was well known for her guided tours through each of these museums which she conducted for many groups of local citizens, out of town visitors and local and regional school children, utilizing her broad knowledge of and interest in Mobile's history and its Mardi Gras past. She was an active community volunteer for many years with the Junior League of Mobile, and was a member of several Mardi Gras Mystic Societies. She enjoyed participating in all water sports at family summer homes in Point Clear and on Magnolia River her entire life, particularly fishing and sailing. As an avid sailor, she achieved third place in the United States National Sailing Championships for the "Day Sailor Class", a seventeen foot racing sailboat, in the early 1960's, and she participated with husband, Zeb, in many sailboat races at the Mobile Yacht Club and Fairhope Yacht Club, as well as in the Dauphin Island Race held annually. She was featured, together with her sister, Kathryn Slaton Thompson, and lifelong friend, Jean Faulk Radcliff, in the Public Broadcasting System documentary "America in the Forties" by noted filmmaker Tom Spain, where they each shared their experiences as teenagers in Mobile during World War II and commented on social life in Mobile and the changes brought on by the War. She was loved by and will be missed by a wide circle of friends and family.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Henry Crawford Slaton and Elizabeth Bailey Slaton, her husband, Zebulon Montgomery Pike Inge, grandson, Zebulon Montgomery Pike Inge, III, brother, Henry Crawford Slaton, Jr. and brother-in-law, Vester J. Thompson, Jr.

She is survived by a large extended family of Slatons and Inges, including her brother, Edward Bailey Slaton (Gale), sister, Kathryn Slaton Thompson, sister-in-law, Mary Hunter Turner Slaton; four children, Zebulon Montgomery Pike Inge, Jr. (Denise), Crawford Slaton Inge, Mary Jane Inge Tingle (Charlie), and James Tunstall Inge (Frances); grandchildren, Helen Jemison Inge, Anne Marie Waterman Inge Howser (Jay), Thaddeus Waterman Inge (Annie), Whiting Inge Mostellar (Hamp), Margaret Erwin Inge, James Tunstall Inge, Jr., Amelie Courtney Inge, and Manley Inge Tingle (Nicole); and great-grandchildren, Henry Crawford Mostellar, Margaret Joyce Mostellar, and Thaddeus Harrison Pradella Inge.

Funeral services will be held at 11 A.M. on Monday, October 17, 2011 from St. Paul's Episcopal Church. The family will receive friends from 10 A.M. until 11 A.M. on Monday in the Church Parish Hall. Interment will be In Pine Crest Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St.Paul's Episcopal Church Chapel Trust Fund, 4051 Old Shell Road, Mobile, Alabama 36608; the Community Foundation of South Alabama for benefit of The Museum of Mobile Fund, P.O. Box 990, Mobile, Alabama 36601; or the Mobile Carnival Museum, P.O. Box 2121, Mobile, Alabama 36652.