Mary Willis

Mary Vickery Willis; Mimi, Mom, Momma, Mary #1, and most important title “Queen Mary of the Delaney”. “Queen Mary” departed her earthly home on February 15th at the Delaney surrounded by her family and friends. She now resides in her Heavenly Mansion that she worked on all her life to get there. She led a full Christian life where she witnessed her faith and the Love she had for the Lord during sickness and in health.

Mary was born March 10, 1930 in Coolidge Texas to Hurley Carl Vickery and Ima Lou Bates. Her mother was six months pregnant with Mary when her father passed away before her birth. She had two older brothers and was told her Daddy always wanted a daughter. Oh, Happy Day! She finally got to meet her Daddy! She waited 93 years for this day.

Mary was a charter member of Western Heights Baptist Church, The McLennan Chapter of Eastern Star, and The Henry Downs Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. She attended Sanger Heights Elementary and graduated from Waco High School class of 1948. She worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company and as secretary of Visiting Teacher for Waco ISD, including numerous other duties. After retirement, her and her husband opened Southwest Telecom, retired from there, and enjoyed their remaining years traveling the world together with some very dear friends and relatives, making memories that will never be forgotten.

Mary met her husband, Everett Lee Willis in the Fall of 1946 when he was riding down the street on North 9th Street in Waco, Texas in the back of his friend’s truck in his overalls. They dated for a little over a year. During her senior year in high school, he gave her an engagement ring. The day of graduation they started making wedding plans and were married June 5, 1948 at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Waco, TX. They celebrated 69 years of marriage just 10 days before he passed, Daddy knew not to leave before their big celebration!

Their marriage left the legacy of four children: one son and three daughters. Mary and Lee were so adamant about their family being raised in the Church that they bought a new house in a neighborhood with a new Church being built and Pastor J. Henry Brown living just one block up the street. They were charter members at Western Heights Baptist Church and even at 93 years of age she was still a witness to people for the Lord, and how to be saved. She welcomed everybody she encountered to sit with her at “her pew” and never met a stranger. She was baptized in the Mouth of the Bosque when she was 10 years old. Mary was an avid journalist, and she stated many times, “God is good and has blessed me, Lee, and my family” followed by her favorite Bible Verse, Phil. 4:13.

Mary was preceded in death by her loving husband, Everett Lee Willis, Jr.; only son, Charles Lee Willis; mother and father; two brothers, Hurley (Bill) Carl Vickery and Robert (Bob) Dale Vickery; and grandson, Charles Patrick Franklin.

She is survived by her three daughters, Pam House, Denise, and Leslie McBride; and daughter-in-law, Ronda Willis. She has 8 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, 3 great-great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.