Obituary of Mary Lou Herring

Mary Lou Herring, a spirited cocktail of a woman – curious, creative, one-of-a-kind -- sailed a long arc from a farm in Ava, Missouri, to interior design and art, family and friends, in Fort Worth, where she died on June 16, 2019, at age 91.

 

She’d arrived on Sept. 23, 1927, as Mary Lou Malloy, fourth daughter and fifth child of Eursel and Ida Malloy of Ava, Missouri. Eursel farmed there until the Depression took his family to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he ran a feed store on Main Street. As late as the early 1960s, customers might show up on horseback. Given Ida’s Baptist sensibilities, Eursel kept his apricot brandy in the business safe for sips at noon and after 5 p.m.

 

Further down Main Street, the Malloy home was close enough for Mary Lou to walk to grade school and then, like a lot of her friends, to Oklahoma A&M. In high school she was voted most popular. In college she was a cheerleader. Several of the hometown-to-college friends stayed close all their lives.

 

Following college, Mary Lou spent five years in Dallas as a secretary to the man who later founded and led Texas Instruments. Her life took a turn in 1949 on a blind date with Gene Herring, an engineer with Convair, now Lockheed Martin.  At the time, Gene lived with his best friend, David George, eventually an acclaimed architect. David would later design Gene and Mary Lou’s remarkable home on Quail Run. 

 

Once when Mary Lou and Gene had been dating for six or eight months, Mary Lou, still living in Dallas, took a bus alone to Fort Worth. A half century before cellphones, with no means to contact Gene, she reached Ft. Worth, walked out of the bus station and kept walking. Forty-five minutes later, Gene was driving an errand and saw her. He said to her, “What are you doing?” And she said, “Coming to see you. I knew you’d find me.”

 

They married on Sept. 17, 1950, and lived in Ft. Worth, initially a few houses from Gene’s Aunt Lois, a frequent and unannounced guest, then on Bryce Street, where Matt and Melissa arrived. Quail Run was their third and final home. 

 

Mary Lou’s artistic core kept her in a state of endless curiosity and her family on the receiving end of it. Food, dress, people, books, design . . . all blew open adventure. Family pets were sheepdogs descended from Scotland or Australian cocker spaniels. Before Google made it easy, Mary Lou acquired hats for occasions on the calendar and occasions she came up with herself. One night a week, for instance, family dinners were bohemian, no utensils allowed. 

 

The humor flying often was situational, as when Gene’s Studebaker would back itself out the driveway and head on its own toward General Dynamics. One exception was the family vacation when Mary Lou, dressed up for dinner with Gene, saw little Melissa on the floor of the hotel pool and dove in to save her. 

 

On Melissa’s birthdays – April 1 – Mary Lou spiked her daughter’s school lunches with Saranwrap between the slices of her peanut butter sandwiches or packed dogfood instead of cookies. Mary Lou said giving birth to Melissa on April Fool’s Day was the best joke she ever pulled. 

 

Mary Lou was active in St. Andrews Episcopal church and took communion until the day she died. She wrote the history of the church and published a book on the stories behind its stained-glass windows. On Wednesdays in the church kitchen, she loved helping make and give sandwiches to the poor. 

 

Mary Lou loved anything Irish, healthy irreverence, good design, and novels. She collected ideas and art and people. She hung chairs up as wall art, put novel chess figures on her mantle, and hosted March 17 potato parties. (She’d say nothing could go wrong on St. Patrick’s Day.) She took up welding and welded her daughter’s bedstead with iron flowers. She learned to play the zither. Among other prized qualities, her children inherited her wicked sense of humor. Her daughter, Melissa, got the creative gene. Matt got her gift for making friends.

 

Mary Lou Herring is survived by her son, Matt, and his wife, Carol, of Ft. Worth; her daughter, Melissa, and her husband, Mike, of Dallas; her grandchildren Blake Whatley, Will Allen, Luke Allen, Mary Katherine Allen Hill, David Allen, and a growing lineup of great-grandchildren.

 

Graveside service is 11 a.m. Wednesday at Waxahachie City Cemetery, 300 S. Hawkins St., Waxahachie, Texas. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Behind Every Door (2824 Swiss Ave., Dallas 75204) or Rio Bravo Orphanage (PO Box 2512, Mission, Texas 78572).