Mary Ann McRae

WIFE OF JOHN E. MEYER

I was born on November 23, 1934, at Ranger, Texas to Hamilton E. McRae, Jr. and Adrian Hagaman McRae. My father, a graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, was practicing law with his uncle John D. McRae in Eastland, Texas, and my mother was a graduate of the College of Industrial Arts in Denton, Texas with a degree in Costume Design and taught home economics at Ranger High until she and my father married in 1933. We lived in Eastland until 1936 when we moved to Midland, Texas where my father started a law firm with Frank Stubbeman and Tom Sealy and was engaged in the practice of law there until his death in 1991.

My parents built a house at 406 South L Street in 1937. It was on an unpaved street and a cornfield was cleared to build the house. Soon afterwards the Tom Sealy family built a house next door on the corner of L and Holloway Streets.

I attended public schools in Midland, graduating Salutatorian from John M Cowden Junior High School and then graduating again as Salutatorian from Midland High School in 1952.

I received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1955 from Southern Methodist University, majoring in Spanish with a minor in Comparative Literature. At SMU I was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority, along with many Spanish and English honoraries. I graduated from SMU Magna Cum Laude in 1955.

After graduating from SMU, I worked for the law firm of Stubbeman, McRae and Sealy until my marriage to Thomas Menzies Sloan, the son of Thomas Nettleton Sloan and Mary Frances Menzies Sloan, also of Midland.

Of that union two children were born, Thomas McRae Sloan and Mary Katherine Sloan in 1961. Thomas Menzies Sloan and I divorced in 1985, and I studied at Midland College to obtain an Associate Degree as a Legal Assistant, obtaining my certification as a Certified Legal Assistant in 1987 and began work as a Legal Assistant with the firm of Kerr, Fitzgerald, Kerr and later for the McRae Management Trust.

In 1993, I began a relationship with John Edward Meyer who had moved to Midland with his parents from Wichita, Kansas, where he was born. We married at the MacRae Castle, Eileen Donan at Dornie by Kyle, Scotland on August 8, 2000, where my ancestors had been christened and married for hundreds of years, attended by two of my MacRae family who now own the castle.

John and I the joined the Millenium Gathering of Clan MacRae and traveled with that group for two weeks. Then, when that Clan Gathering was over, we traveled to the Outer Hebrides for two weeks.

I have owned and operated a sporting goods business by the name of Comanche Outfitters, selling all manners of hunting, fishing, and camping supplies. For many years, I even held a Federal Firearms License in my own name in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I was active in work with the Buffalo Trails Council of the Boy Scouts of America and served as a merit badge counselor for many years, and with a great deal of research in hiking and canoeing, was able to establish the Grand Comanche War Trail as a hiking trail for the Boy Scouts of America.

I have enjoyed hunting, fly fishing and camping for many years, and sold Grumman and Old Town Canoes. I have enjoyed skeet shooting at the Midland Gun Club for many years.

My memberships include the Episcopal Church, Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority, the Clan MacRae Society of North America, of which I am now a Director Emeritus, the Clan MacRae Society of Scotland, the Clan Macleod Society, the Celtic Heritage Club of the Permian Basin, the Scottish Heritage of the Permian Basin, and the Republican National Committee.

I am survived by my husband John Edward Meyer, my son Thomas McRae Sloan and his wife Shirley Sutton Sloan and their children Regan Spence, Cavan Spence, Thomas Sloan, Joshua Mims, my daughter Katie Sloan Goggans, her husband Chris Goggans and their children Christopher Cherryhomes, Sarah Cherryhomes, and Cody Goggans and two great grandchildren, Luke and Rose. My brother Hamilton E. McRae III and his wife, Betty Hawkins McRae and their children Beth McRae and husband Bill Doherty, Stephanie and Todd Campbell and their children, Cole and Lauren, and Scott McRae and his children, Alex, Chris and Bradley.

My first cousin, Suzanne McRae Clay lives in Jackson, Mississippi and her children Mark and his wife, Dixie, and their family as well as my father’s brother Bryan and Jamie Clay and their children also in Jackson, Mississippi. My other McRae first cousins are Adrienne Doss Ford and her son Robert Lyndle Garrett, and Dudley Doss; also a second cousin Katherine Clancy Olson and her husband Sean Olson of California.

I have numerous McRae cousins and double cousins in Arkansas and North Carolina as well as my cousins from the Hagaman family, Betty Lou Hagaman Doebbler and her family, and Patrick Horrigan of New York City.

A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church with a reception following.

In lieu of flowers, I request donations to Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary, a no-kill for animals, at P.O. Box 51051, Midland, TX 79710 to an Alcoholics Anonymous Group.

Online condolences may be offered at www.ellisfunerals.com