(1874 - 1954)
Information provided from the family
"On a blustery fall day in 1932, a small tornado named Mary Decherd blew into the office of Dr. L. U. Spellman, pastor of University Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Austin, Texas.”
Mary Elizabeth Decherd was born in Bastrop in 1874. Her family was connected to the Alamo and other Texas historical events. Her devout mother, Kate Decherd, developed a strong interest in missions. She was active in the local chapters of the Woman’s Home Missions and Parsonage Society, and the Women’s Foreign Missions Society. Additionally, she was “Lady Manager” of the girls’ missionary group. Kate’s daughter Mary was a charter member and an active participant in these meetings. The lessons she learned there were to bear important fruit later. The congregation organized an Epworth League chapter in 1892, one of the very first in the state. From the Epworth League, Mary Decherd imbibed still greater mission consciousness.
Young Mary, called Mamie by nieces and nephews, was a brilliant student with an "independent spirit”. Since her father was often away from home on business (he was a middle level official with the Texas State Treasurer's office), she was raised mostly by her mother and grandmother. Once, when her father demanded that she do something, she protested to her mother, "Do I have to take orders from him?" Graduating from high school at the age of 15, the precocious Mary entered the University of Texas. She completed her bachelor’s degree in three years, graduating in 1892 and going on to become the first female to earn an M.A. degree from the University. She also did graduate work at the University of Chicago. After ten years of teaching at Austin High School, Miss Mary began work at the University as a mathematics instructor.
As a professor, she continued her interest in religious matters. In 1931, she was instrumental in inaugurating the University’s Committee on Student Religious Life. For several decades, she taught a young woman’s Sunday school class that usually numbered around one hundred. The significant work for which Mary Decherd will be most remembered began just before World War I when she launched a one-woman crusade to support Methodist missions in South Brazil.
After World War II, poor health forced Mary Decherd into retirement. At her home near the campus, she raised flowers, studied history, and maintained a steady correspondence with friends. Later in her life Mamie would tell the family that she could not go to church with them as she was suffering from "old age". In 1954, the mainspring finally ran down and Mary Decherd at last got a well-deserved rest. Mamie passed away on February 15, 1954. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery alongside her parents George and Kate.
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