Mary Celeste McAshan Scott

She was born in Houston, Texas on the 18th of June 1920, the fourth of six children, to Samuel Alexander McAshan of Houston and Mary Celeste McLaughlin McAshan of Trinity, Texas. Born into a pioneer Houston family, she was a sixth generation Houstonian, with 11 ancestors arriving in Houston and Texas before 1845. Two of her ancestors, Alexander McGowen and Isaac Wright Brashear, were Harris County representatives to the Constitutional Convention of 1845 which set the terms under which Texas entered the Union, and Alexander McGowen was twice mayor of the city, in 1858 and 1866.

Celeste, or “Baba”, as she was known from childhood to family and friends, attended St. Agnes Academy and Rice University; graduating from Rice in 1941. It was while attending grade school at St. Agnes that she first made the acquaintance of three dear lifelong friends, all of whom went through St. Agnes and Rice together with her, and who survive her, Antoinette Letsos, Kathleen Eichelberger, and Margie Mulvey. In 1941, Celeste married Uriel Hawe Jones, and to this marriage were born two children, Uriel Hawe Jones and James McAshan Jones. In 1953, she married Hugh Lenox Scott II and a son Hugh Lenox Scott III was born in 1956. She was employed as an executive legal secretary at Vinson Elkins for a number of years, retiring in 1985. She was a member of the Junior League, the Westmoreland Civic Association, and the Mothers Clubs at Holy Rosary and St. Ann's schools, and St. Thomas High School. She loved to garden and her home on Emerson Street in the Westmoreland Subdivision of Montrose was a show place of beautiful plants, flowers and trees. She was a lovely, gracious, hospitable, and generous lady who enjoyed life and knew how to put people immediately at ease, and lift up and add life to a gathering. She had close friends from all walks of life, and was beloved by many. She spent her last 12 years at the Hallmark, where she participated in many activities and had many close friends.

She was predeceased by her parents, her three brothers, her two sisters, her husbands, and by her son James Jones. Surviving are her sons, Uriel H. ("Paul") Jones and wife, Carmen Jones; and Hugh Scott III; five grandchildren she doted on, Elizabeth Kathleen, Edward, and Stephen Jones, James and Aaron Floyd; and two beloved great-grandchildren, Sarah Leda Jones, and Ella Rose Floyd. Also surviving her is her beloved brother-in-law, Gilbert Allen and his family; special friends, Beverly and Steve Floyd, Steve Floyd Jr. and wife Linze, and Helen Alfa; many dear cousins, especially Allen McAshan, Alex and Maurice Adams, Frank Kelly, Jane Fountain, Khleber Atwell, R. B. Rocky McAshan III, and Tex Fountain, and many beloved nieces and nephews, expecially Virginia Scelfo, Gib Allen, Cecilia Gatlin, Marcella Wildes, and Celeste Neuman; her very special friends Artelia King and Rodney Nevitt; and her three lifelong friends Antoinette Letsos, Kathleen Eichelberger, and Margie Mulvey.

The family would especially like to thank her caregivers at the Hallmark who took excellent care of her in her later years.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that donations in Celeste’s name be directed to the Rice University Office of Development, MS 81 P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892 or St. Agnes Academy, 9000 Bellaire Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77036-4683; two institutions she supported throughout her life.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from ten o'clock in the morning until noon, Saturday, the 15th of May, in the Drawing Room of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston. Prior to the visitation, the recitation of the Holy Rosary is to commence at half-past nine o’clock in the morning.

A celebration of her life is to be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday, the 15th of May, at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 3601 Milam Street in Houston, where the Rev. Ian Bordanave is to celebrate.

The interment will follow, via an escorted cortege, at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

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