Mary Jean Smith

Mary Jean Smith, aka (also known as) Mary or Auntie Jean, of Fort Worth, went to be with the LORD on Friday, November 11, 2016, at 66 years of age. Mary Jean was born March 15, 1950, in Winslow, Arizona, to Frances Marie Sanders. She lived with her grandmother Aquilla Lacy-Daughtery Oliver in Cisco, TX, until the age of four, when she was adopted by cousins of the family who then moved to Abilene, TX.

Mary Jean attended Woodson Elementary and Lincoln Junior High Schools in Abilene. With her love for arts & crafts, she arranged the exhibit displays in the Arts and Crafts Pavilion during the West Texas Fair in Abilene. Mary Jean served as a teacher for four and five year olds in the Young Children’s World at Highland Church of Christ, in Abilene, and later enjoyed rocking infants in the nursery w/close friend Martha Holmes. Employment included delivering newspapers for the Abilene Reporter News, serving as housekeeper for several Abilene families, and working in the cafeterias at Franklin Middle and Abilene High Schools.

In recent years, Mary Jean lived in Fort Worth, TX, with her daughter, Aquilla. She attended Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and was a member of Life on Life ladies Bible study group.

Special interests included Bible reading, Journaling, sitting down to eat a meal; being with friends and family, attending her daughter’s music performances and rehearsals, traveling to new and unknown places, and intercessory prayer.

She was preceded in death by her grandmother; birth mother; adoptive parents, Henry Pete and Sarah Elizabeth Smith; two sisters, Sandra Sanders and Allessia Love; and one brother, Stacy Sanders; two self-adopted sisters, Connie Ruth colvin of Abilene, TX, and Karen May Cowley Rubel of Fort Worth, TX.

Mary Jean is Survived by one daughter, Aquilla Elizabeth Smith of Fort Worth, TX; three brothers: Robert Oliver of California; Grant Sanders, Jr., of Colorado; and Dana Sanders of Austin, TX; one sister: Yvette Trotter of San Angelo, TX; and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews.

Special mention goes to Carol Wilson, a “second mom” for Aquilla, an only child; Rolando and Melissa Orta and family, who blessed Mary Jean with beautiful music and Aquilla with two “nieces”, and two “nephews”; Fred and Jennette Woodard and family, who have provided special memories, as well as a “brother” and two sisters” for Aquilla; the dear ladies of Mary Jean’s Life on Life Bible study group; and faithful prayer warriors, Lynette Sanders and Jamie W. Perkins, as well as Carolyn Nines (who affectionately called Mary Jean “Tutti-Frutti”)

Mary Jean was BLESSED by the prayers of many to receive, in God’s fulfillment, a kidney transplant, on August 31, 2016

Special appreciation is expressed to Dr. Marianne Beard, Dr. Gopal Doshi, the many nurses and technicians of the South Arlington Dialysis Center, as well as the medical staffs at Baylor-University Medical Center at Dallas, Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth; and Dallas Transplant Institute.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the American Kidney Fund (www.kidneyfund.org) to assist families in affording Dialysis.