WHITE HOUSE, TENNESSEE – Mary Jane Duty, with eyes of blue, passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 4, after a long, hard battle with cancer. She was surrounded by loved ones, where she spent her final days in the home of her youngest daughter in Tennessee.
She was born in Arlington, Tex., to Joe and Mary Beaver and was one of five children.
Mary was a graduate of Sam Houston High School and later worked as a superintendent of Trammell Crow Construction. Mary also enjoyed the simple pleasures, including chatting with friend, quilting and sewing, fishing and hunting where she outshined the men, gardening and feeding the hummingbirds. She often spoke of her travels to Venezuela and had hoped to return some day. Mary had a great sense of humor and an uncanny ability to know things she really didn’t have firsthand knowledge of, almost like a mind reader.
She was to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband in June and loved all her family.
She is pre-deceased by her parents, Joe and Mary Beaver, and her sister, Betty Gillum. She is survived by her husband, Randy Duty, of Buncombe, Ill., her daughters, Kim Wempa of Portland, Tenn., Kelly Alperin and her husband, Brian, of Norfolk, Va., Jayme Urich and her husband, Michael, of Cross Plains, Tenn., her brothers, Joe Beaver Jr. and wife, Dee, of Hickory Creek, Tex., and John Beaver of Broughton, Ill., and sister, Janda Hooper and husband, Steve, of Siloam Springs, Ark., niece Landa Ellsworth, nephew Lance Hooper, and niece Latisha Keith, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as her Yorkshire Terrier, Sophie.
Donations may be made to Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn. A memorial service was held on May 26.