Iva Marie Pickens, 98, a school teacher retired from the Arlington Public Schools, died in a Dallas hospital late Sunday night, October 6, 2019. Graveside services will be held in Moore Memorial Gardens, Arlington, at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, October 10, 2019.
Marie was born in a Dallas hospital on November 29, 1920, to Daniel Blythe Roark and Iva Elizabeth Crouch. She attended elementary school in Lancaster where her father was superintendent of schools and later moved with her father, stepmother, and siblings to Dallas where she graduated from Sunset High School in 1937. She attended NTAC in Arlington and graduated from the North Texas State Teachers College in Denton with a degree in Homemaking and English. She taught homemaking in the public schools at Fabens and Wharton, Texas, and later moved to the state of Washington where she met and married Ulys Ray Pickens of Charleston, West Virginia, on March 25, 1948. Marie returned to Texas in 1950 where she served as director of lunchrooms for the Irving Public School System. In 1958, she returned to the University of North Texas for graduate work in elementary education, following which she taught second grade at Louise Blanton Elementary School in Arlington from 1958 until her retirement in 1975.
Marie had a strong Christian faith and was a faithful member of the First Baptist Church in Arlington where she served as Sunday School teacher of eleven-year-old girls for over twenty years. After retirement, she and her husband purchased a summer home in Stehekin, Washington, where they spent their summers, later purchasing a home in the Cherry Hill Community of Arkansas. In 1992, she and her husband returned to Arlington and a home on Briarwood. Ulys “Pick” Pickens died February 3, 2005, and Marie remained a widow for the rest of her life. In her later years, she suffered from dementia and died of natural causes.
Marie had no children and was survived by her brother John J. Roark and wife Aggie of Dallas; nephew Daniel Lee Roark and Cyndy of Carrollton; grandniece Jennifer Strockbine and Chris of Hebron; grandnephews Daniel Connor Roark, Dennis Cameron Roark, and Jefferson Dean Roark. She was predeceased by her parents, stepmother Myrtle McKinney Roark, brother Daniel Blythe Roark Jr. and sister Juanita Robertson.
Marie will be remembered for her marvelous Christian character, happy approach to life, and love for her family and church.
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