Mary E. Locke

Mary Elizabeth Martin Locke of Houston, Texas died April 11, 2020, at age 92 in Houston, Texas. She was born in Los Angeles, California to Anna Johanna Gertrude Swenson Martin and Ernest Claude Martin on August 16, 1927.

Mary married Neal Hartley Locke, a native of Santa Monica, California, on February 2, 1949, and again on May 31, 1958. They had a daughter, Melody Elizabeth Locke, also a California native, the wife of Stanley T. Ryzinski, Jr., a native of Michigan; they reside in Houston, Texas.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents and her beloved husband of 69 years, Neal. In addition to her daughter and son-in-law, Mary is survived by her brother Douglas Claude Martin, his wife Sara Smith Martin, and Doug’s children, Mitchell Martin, Martha Sky Martin, Daniel Martin, and Duncan Martin, all of whom reside in California.

An accident during birth left Mary blind in her right eye. At the time, educators considered blindness in one eye to be a learning disability, and she was initially held back. These experts also told that she shouldn’t read. In defiance of being told she couldn’t read, she often got into trouble for sneaking books into her bedroom. Being told that she wasn’t capable of doing something became the lightning rod that inspired Mary throughout her life.

A bout of scarlet fever at the start of Mary’s freshman year at Pasadena City College temporarily derailed her plans to get her college degree. While Neal attended college at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Mary earned her PHT (Put Hubby Through) certificate by working a variety of jobs including a job in the library, various typing and secretarial jobs, and as the house mother at the ATO fraternity house.

Government and politics was important to Mary, and as a young woman, she joined the League of Women Voters (LWV), which started her long association with the organization. During her time with the LWV, she moderated numerous candidate debates. She resigned from her position as the first vice president of the New Jersey LWV to run for office. She and Neal also worked at Election Central for ABC during the 1968 primary and general elections.

During her 10 years in East Brunswick, New Jersey, Mary ran for city council and was nominated for the State Assembly. Although she was not elected, she was an early trailblazer for women in politics.

While living in Houston, Texas, in the 1970s, she worked for a couple of years in the Mayor’s office and started their first word processing center. After leaving the mayor’s office, she was fired from a job that she didn’t like, but the firing inspired her to start her own company, Word Processing Enterprises. At the time, the concept was so new that the category didn’t exist in the Yellow Pages.

Mary and Neal moved to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981 and had a little farm (Locke’s Flocks) where they grew fruit and vegetables and raised sheep. While living in Grand Junction, Colorado, Mary fulfilled her dream of going to college and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Mesa State College with a degree in political science. Shortly before restarting college, she was approached by Reston Publishing (now Prentice Hall) to write a textbook about information and word processing. Her book was subsequently used by Mesa State College during the time that she was a student. Five years after graduating, she received the Distinguished Recent Alumni Award, the first non-traditional student so honored.

Believing that the western slope of Colorado needed a university, she organized and led a four-person group that successfully saw the conversion of her alma mater to Colorado Mesa University. Mary and Neal proudly started and funded the Locke Academic Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for political science or accounting majors.

In Grand Junction, Mary spearheaded the effort and overcame many obstacles to establish a local bus system in the Grand Valley. Although local government leaders said that it would be a “cold day in Hell” before a bus system would be established there, the ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on a cold day in January 2000. The Grand Valley Transit system exceeded its millionth rider several years ago.

After Mary and Neal moved to Temple, Texas, in 2004, Mary joined the Temple Symphony Orchestra Alliance (TASO), and eventually served as its president. She also served as secretary for the Temple Symphony Orchestra.

Mary and Neal experienced more than 20 moves during their 69-year marriage and owned nine new houses, three of which they designed. Regardless of where she lived, Mary enjoyed gardening, camping, water skiing, traveling to new places, and book clubs. Throughout her life, she continually embraced opportunities to improve her community, especially when she was told that she couldn’t succeed.

Due to the current circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 virus, a memorial service will be celebrated at a later date, when gatherings are once again permissible.