Mary Lee (Acton) Berrey

Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at Debo Funeral Home in Fulton. Entombment will follow in Callaway Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be from 5-7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9 at the funeral home.

She was born in Columbia, Missouri on June 14, 1946, the daughter of Robert Earl Acton and the late Mary Sue (Griffin) Acton.

In May 1963, Mary was united in marriage to Timothy McDermott and a daughter, Deborah Lee (McDermott) O’Rourke was born to this union. Tim and Mary divorced and Mary later married Harold Eugene “Gene” Berrey in 1966 and three children were born to this marriage, Robert Eugene Berrey, John Clayton Berrey and Kimberly Sue (Berrey) Schoening.

Mary attended elementary schools in Columbia, Missouri, middle and high school in Fulton, graduating from Fulton High School in 1964.

Mary worked at the Stride-Rite Shoe Factory and was one of the few women that worked with the men at Harbison-Walker and then became certified to be an owner/operator of an in-home day care center (Buttons & Bows). She was a child care provider for hundreds of children and they in turn would bring their children to Mary to watch also.

She had an extraordinary knack for taking the ordinary items in life and making them funny. She also had an ability of making people comfortable around her and they would end up telling her their entire life stories and she was able to relate to them.

Her passions were having fun, cooking, shopping, her family and her cats.

She loved going to The Lake every weekend when the kids were growing up and dancing and laughing at Johnson’s Inn in her earlier years. Later, she would host BBQ’s and get-togethers and no one ever left hungry. Her family and cats were the most important aspect of her life and we never knew which came first, as she loved and fiercely defended both.

She is survived by her father, Robert Acton; husband, Gene Berrey; daughters, Debbie (Gene) O’Rourke, Kim Schoening; sons, Robert (Nancy) Berrey and John (Carmen) Berrey; grandchildren, Kevin, Caleb and Cierra O’Rourke, Brittany (Steve) Stotts, Jessica (Jared) Owen, Joshua Berrey, Catherine Berrey, Luke Berrey, LauRen Schoening and Julian Schoening; great-grandchildren, Shane and Parker Stotts; Aunt Freda (Bob) Humphreys and her beloved dog, Ralphie.

Mary was preceded in death by her mother, Mary Sue Acton.