Mary Lou (Schuenemann) Stebler

Mary Lou (Schuenemann) Stebler, age 74, died on March 8, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. Mary Lou was a strong-willed and determined person, true to her German roots, and maintained that strength until the very end. Born in Houston, Texas on February 12, 1938, Mary Lou was a talented dancer as a child and teenager. She danced in local Houston productions and on television. When she was determined to do something, it was difficult to stop her.

Mary Lou first met her future husband, Leon Stebler, when she was 10 and he was 12, in elementary school. They began dating in high school, were married after she graduated from college, and remained married for the next 51 years. They were inseparable and sincerely devoted to each other throughout their life together.

Mary Lou attended Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston, where she played bagpipes in the Scottish Brigade. She graduated high school in 1956, then moved to Austin and attended the University of Texas at Austin. In college she was president of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and was honored as a "Bluebonnet Belle." Mary Lou remained friends for life with many of those she met in high school and college.

After earning her college degree at UT in 1960, Mary Lou taught school, got married, and spent the rest of her life raising two kids, supporting and loving her husband, maintaining a family, and, in later years, enjoying her grandchildren. Over the years, Mary Lou and Leon lived in Houston, Dallas, Arlington, Lubbock, and Phoenix, before retiring to Austin in 1994. Along the way, Mary Lou grew many gardens, played dozens of games of bridge, bowled with friends, coached her daughter's softball team, watched many baseball games, took walks in the Arizona desert, read hundreds of books, and completed countless crossword puzzles.

Mary Lou will always be loved and remembered for a resilience and determination that was inspiring, though you might not want to get into an argument with her. That toughness helped her as she fought through three separate bouts of cancer over 11 years.

She leaves behind her husband, Leon A. Stebler, Jr., of Austin, Texas; a daughter, Stasia Bandy, of Grapevine, Texas, and her husband, Craige Bandy; a son, Scott Stebler, of Austin, Texas, and his wife, Dana Stebler; and three grandchildren: Shelby Stebler, Nathan Stebler, and Cole Bandy. She also is survived by two brothers, John Robert Schuenemann, and his wife, Sue, of Carrollton, Texas, and Charles Richard (Dickie) Schuenemann, and his wife, Carolyn, of Houston, and their families. She was preceded in death by her father, Dietrich Hugo Schuenemann, and her mother, Mamie Blaise Schuenemann.

Funeral services will be held at the Chapel of the Angels in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston on Monday, March 12th, at 2:00 p.m. Flowers may be sent to Weed-Corley-Fish in Austin, Texas prior to Monday, or, in lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation