Mrs. Mary Williams Brewer

Mary Grey Williams Brewer passed away peacefully surrounded by family on March 1, 2024 in Wilson, NC. Mary Brewer is survived by her two sons, Douglas Carl Brewer MD and his wife Priscilla, and Ted Allen Brewer, Colonel, USAF (Ret) and his wife, Julie; her four grandchildren: Katrina O'Conor, Jonathan Brewer, Scott Brewer and Kelly Brewer; and her four great grandchildren: Macy O'Conor and Colin O'Conor, and Hayden and Addie Brewer.

Born on November 12, 1921, she was a devoted wife and mother and lived her 102 years to the fullest. Growing up in Wilson, she eloped to Dillon SC with Lonnie Carl Brewer to get married in 1941. Soon thereafter, WWII started and she accompanied him on an adventure as a military wife. From Ft. Myers Florida to Hawaii, Newport News, Japan, Germany, the Pentagon, Ohio, Illinois and Georgia, she took her two sons, via converted troop carrier, propeller planes, trains and automobiles raising them in far flung foreign lands and in the USA, at times while her husband was serving separately overseas. She was a staunch supporter of military families and served on numerous committees of Officers' wives clubs providing military and local community service and more. She enjoyed bridge with Lena Thomas and Inez Barnes and even Mahjong before Mahjong was cool. Her life was not without thrills; while in florida she saw a pilot trainee crash his plane directly in the home across from hers, in Japan she modeled a dress made by the Japanese princesses' royal dressmaker, when returning from the USA from Japan she and her two young children had to take four separate planes due to engine failure over the pacific. She also kept up with scores of Air Force friends she met throughout the years. Mary wouldn't take no for an answer, after much travail with bank loan officers who refused her retirement home loan, she unabashedly marched to the top floor of the "big bank" towers and convinced the president to approve the loan. Mary and Carl then moved into the home they built in Elm City NC in 1970. Even with her sons going off to college and med school, she continued to provide a home they and their families were glad to come back to time and again. Steadfast, strong and loving, Mary Brewer will be missed.

Visitation and services will be held at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, 5326 London Church Rd, Elm City, NC 27822, starting at 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm respectively on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, followed by a brief graveside service at Maplewood Cemetery in Wilson, NC.

Arrangements are entrusted to Thomas-Yelverton Funeral Home, 2704 Nash Street, Wilson, NC. Online condolences may be made to the family via the Thomas-Yelverton website.