Mary Groves Powers was born October 3, 1915, in Asheville, NC, to John Alexander Groves and Rhetta Ann McElreath Groves and died on May 1, 2008. She attended Sullins in Bristol, VA, and at the age of 18, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude with three majors from University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It was there she met John Pike Powers III. They wed in 1937 and honeymooned in Havana, Cuba. Mary and Pike were married 56 years at the time of his death in 1993.
The couple moved to Beaumont in 1950 and began a long tenure of civic involvement including membership as one of the10 founding families of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. She was active many years in the church’s Altar Guild and served as former president of Women of St. Stephen’s, of which she was program chairman for seven years.
Mary also was dedicated to several historical and cultural organizations. For many years she volunteered as a docent at the French Trading Post and the McFaddin-Ward House and was a member of the Gallery Guild of the former Beaumont Art Museum. She was a charter member of the Progressive Study Club, a member of the Symphony League, the Beaumont Heritage Society and the Texas Gulf Historical Society. Serving more than 15 years on the Jefferson County Historical Commission, of which she was a member emeritus until her death, she wrote the county’s history to provide an historical marker at the courthouse downtown.
When her children were young, Mary was active in the Cub Scouts, Campfire Girls, PTA and often served as a room mother. She later taught English and history at All Saints Day School, Stephen F. Austin Junior High School and Beaumont and French high schools. She was a member of many professional teachers’ organizations, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (Houston) and the Tyrrell Historical Library Association. She served on the board of the League of Women Voters and was active in the Chi Omega alumnae chapter of Beaumont, for which served as president in 1966. A longtime member of Milady Garden Club, she won many prizes for her floral arrangements. She loved to travel and visited 59 foreign countries.
She is survived by three children, John Pike Powers IV and his wife Pam of Austin, Richard Gwin Powers of Oxford, Mississippi, and Ann (Scout) Powers Carr of Austin; five grandchildren, John Pike Powers V and his wife Nicole, Shannon Flahive and husband, Kevin, and Murray Carr Young and husband, James, all of Austin, Groves Stader Powers and his wife, Catherine, Madison, Mississippi, Leigh Powers Stephens and husband, Tom, Lexington, Kentucky; and her former daughter-in-law, Taylor Richardson Powers, of Baton Rouge, who was like a daughter. She has five great-grandchildren, Emma Josephine Young, John Pike Powers VI and Josephine Reagan Powers, Austin; and Lawrence Beckham Powers and William Stader Powers. Madison, Mississippi.
Memorial services will be 2:00 pm Saturday, May 17, 2008 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, with innichement at St. Stephen’s Columbarium next to her husband.
Please send memorials in lieu of flowers to that institution, 4090 Delaware, Beaumont, Texas, 77706.
