Mary was born 14 May 1926 in Nashville, Tennessee. She was the only child for Oscar and Frances Enoch, but her mother had extended family living in the Nashville area. Oscar had been gassed during WWI in Europe, and his health was poor after that. In search of a climate that might make breathing easier for him, the family moved west…..first to Phoenix, and then on to Los Angeles, California. He died there in May 1940, and following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mary, her mother, and her dog Betsy made the two-day train trip back to Nashville to relocate nearer to her mother’s family.
Mary graduated from Peabody HS in Nashville and transitioned on to Peabody College to work on her degree in education. While in college she met Floyd Strom, an Army Air Force veteran pilot from WWII who was attending Vanderbilt studying civil engineering. Their first official date was to a dance on New Year’s Eve at the end of 1945, and they married 16 December 1946…….starting the beginning of a 73+ year union. Their first son Charles (Chuck) was born in 1948, shortly after Mary graduated from Peabody. After Floyd’s graduation from Vanderbilt in 1950 he accepted a job in Corpus Christi, TX with a company that was then known as Atlantic Refining, and he and Mary and Chuck moved to Corpus Christi. From Corpus (where their second son John was born in 1950) they were transferred to Tulsa, OK, then to Lafayette, LA, and to Dallas, Tx in 1961.
While Chuck and John were younger, Mary was a stay-at-home mom. Once both boys had graduated from high school, and were away at college, Mary enrolled at SMU and earned her master’s in education, and her Texas Teaching Certificate. She then went to work teaching 4th grade in Room 120 at Hyer Elementary in University Park. She taught 21 years, and was named the 1988-1989 HPISD Teacher Of The Year. She was absolutely passionate about teaching, and after two generations (100’s of kids) it was not uncommon for her to be in the grocery store, and to be recognized and approached by a former student…..now fully grown……and often with children of their own that they would introduce to her. Events like that used to tickle Mary to see how her former students had grown and matured.
Mary used to love to garden, and had quite the green thumb. She had great success growing violets….and those are notoriously fickle plants.
She always had a basket of yarn around, with her latest knitting project at hand. Watching TV, riding on road trips, flying somewhere…..the knitting needles would be clicking and clacking. All of us were recipients of elaborate hand knitted sweaters, caps, vests……she even tackled a full-length coat for herself. In later years she would knit caps for babies and children as part of her church charity group project. Mary and Floyd were active members of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church for many years and for years Mary volunteered to work in the church library.
Mary was an excellent cook. If they were invited to a potluck, odds were pretty good that Mom would be asked to bring her crowd-pleasing cheese grits. All year she would save empty metal coffee cans to use during the fall when it came time to make Chex mix. She would spend hours mixing, baking, stirring every 10 minutes, to get just the right blend and texture. It was tough to stay in that house with the delicious aroma of freshly baked Chex mix in the air. Once you taste the homemade mix, the stuff you buy out of a bag in the store isn’t even close to being in the same league.
For years Mary enjoyed her weekly bridge group sessions. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma. Even late in life she enjoyed monthly book club meetings and luncheons. She collected ceramic and metal mice for display on the fireplace mantle, and had a display case of thimbles she had picked up in her travels around the world.
One of her favorite pictures was one of two year old Chuck holding newly born John……Chuck’s treasured Xmas gift in 1950. Her home was filled with pictures of her sons and their families, and especially of her adored grandson Will.
She would always name the family cars……Hard-to-Get…….Tucson…..Old Goldie…….Sahara……Snow Bird. In 98 years, she never pumped gas to fill up a car’s gas tank…….that just “wasn’t in her job description”. She referred to 18 wheelers that she encountered while driving as “buzzards”…….as in “The buzzards were heavy today”.
Mary was preceded in death by her parents Oscar and Frances Enoch, her husband Floyd, and her son John. She is survived by her son Chuck (wife Pam) and grandson Will, and many nephews and nieces. We would like to extend our grateful thanks to Ms. Carolyn, Donna, Erica, Yvonne, Gloria and Emma for their love and care for both Floyd and Mary over the last 7 years. We would never have made it without you!
I would also like to thank all the friends and neighbors around their house on Hanover who have been so supportive over the last 54 years……would be that everyone could be so lucky to live in a close-knit neighborhood like this one is.
Mary will be laid to rest beside her beloved husband Floyd in the Strom family plot in Forest Park East in Webster, TX. In lieu of flowers the family requests that you consider a contribution to the Alzheimer's Association, the American Cancer Society, or the charity of your choice.
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