Mary Ruth Galloway

Mary Galloway July 20, 1920 February 21, 2011 Mary Ruth Galloway passed away on February 21, 2011, surrounded by her children, Bill Galloway and Ruby Smith. There will be a Celebration of her life at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, March 19, at the Bosqueville United Methodist Church. Her final resting place will be Arlington National Cemetery, where she will join her husband. We will miss you, Mom. Mary was born in Waco on July 20, 1920, and graduated from Waco High. In 1944, at the height of WW II, her husband-to-be, Harold, somehow managed a pass to return to Texas for three days, during which time they were married before he returned to London. After his return from Europe and birth of their son, they moved to the San Francisco area in 1951. There, their daughter, Ruby, was born. In subsequent years, her husband's career in the USAF took them to several stations in California, Brooklyn, N.Y., and ultimately, Washington, DC. Along the way, Mary returned to Waco while her husband was again shipped overseas, this time to the island outpost of Taiwan. During those Air Force years, she often assumed dual parental roles as her husband was away on temporary duty. When Harold retired from the Air Force in 1965, they returned to Waco to settle down permanently. Following the death of her husband in 1987, Mary began to travel and devote her time to a variety of organizations, avocations, and friends. After 30 years as a devoted stay-at home mother and wife, she turned her attentions outward to Waco and the world. She traveled extensively, enjoying multiple visits to the British Isles, Australia, and Ireland. She was a frequent attendee and supporter of theater, music, cultural events, and arts in Waco. She was a regular volunteer at the Strecker Museum for more than a decade, and became a familiar face to those who visited often. She worked as an election judge for untold years until health issues curtailed her stamina for 12-hour workdays. She was a guide on historical homes tours, spent many volunteer hours at the Red Cross, and worked with Meals on Wheels. All the while, she developed a wide and diverse circle of friends, and assumed with characteristic affection and spunk, the roles of grandmother and, nine years ago, great grandmother. Those are some of the things Mary did. To us, her close family and friends, we saw with much greater clarity, the strength of her personality, the depth of her convictions, and her love of a life lived fully engaged and well. She had unique empathy. She could talk with and relate to anyone and everyone, from a manual laborer, to a young college student riding the Greyhound bus back to Austin, to a Ph.D. research scientist at a formal dinner. With each, she would listen and learn, and contribute stories and observations from her own life and experience. She harbored no prejudice and possessed an open mind to the world as it was and not as she thought it ought to be. She maintained an unflagging and steadfast interest in the world and the goings-on therein. Science, geography, cultures and peoples, current events, the latest success of Baylor's women's sports teams...all lay within her realm of interests. She was generous. She gave readily to a variety of charities, causes, and organizations. She never missed a birthday, anniversary, holiday, or special occasion for extended family and friends. She displayed strong civic and national pride, born of her years as a military wife and long residency in the Washington D.C. area, where local news was the national news. She understood patriotism to be an honorable journey and not a platform for self-congratulation. She remained a proud and feisty 20th century progressive with strong social convictions, sense of equality, and concern for opportunity and fairness. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Harold Galloway. She is survived by her two children and her brother, Ed Boles, of Waco. In lieu of flowers, Mom had requested that donations be made to Bosqueville United Methodist Church or Mayborn formerly Strecker Museum, two of her beloved places. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our "Memorial Guestbook" at www.WilkirsonHatchBailey.com.