Mary Ann Vaca-Lambert

Mary Ann Vaca-Lambert, age 65, artist and arts administrator, received her wings and flew away to heaven on 4/8/2022, where she is no longer mobility-impaired. She died at her home in Austin. The cause of death was metastatic anaplastic thyroid cancer, which Mary Ann fought courageously for sixteen years.

Mary Ann was born in Bryan, Texas in 1956 and was a 1975 graduate of Bryan High School. Known as “Annie” to her family, she was preceded in death by her mother Romanita Vaca Barrera and stepfather Victor Barrera of Bryan, TX, and her father Domingo Sauceda of Kalamazoo, MI. She is survived by her loving husband Mark Lambert of Austin, TX; her half-sister Teresa Barrera, of Austin, TX; her nephew James Barrera, wife Paige and their son Ethan Barrera of Houston, TX; her half-sisters Julie Wrate and Theresa Sauceda and half-brother Domingo Sauceda Jr. of Kalamazoo, MI; her aunt Alice Pena and husband John Benavides of Austin, TX; Aunt Gloria Vasquez of Madisonville, TX; Aunt Jesse Maria Garrison of Austin, TX; and numerous cousins, their spouses, nieces, nephews and their extended families.

Mary Ann was a graduate of Sam Houston State University, in Huntsville, TX with a BFA and MA in studio art. She was a dedicated public servant providing arts programs and government services to adults and children for over 35 years, first in the Walker County Clerk’s Office (1 year), then the City of Huntsville Enrichment Activities Program (HEAP) (11 years), next the Harris County Precinct 2 Senior Citizens and Youth Programs (7 years), and finally the City of Austin’s Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) and Dougherty Arts Center (DAC) (17 years), retiring in June 2021.

Mary Ann first learned to sew at the age of six and was a lifelong textile artist who worked in several other mediums including drawing, printmaking, and pottery and later became a professional quilter. She attended the International Quilt Festival in Houston for over thirty years and was extremely gratified when she was finally able to exhibit her own art quilts there. Her quilts have been exhibited across the United States and in five other countries (Mexico, Ireland, England, Netherlands, Japan), including at the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, TX and one of her quilts was included in the publication Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011 (UT Press, 2011), as well as several other recent quilting publications. Her work can be viewed at her website Cloth2Art.

Though she was small, Mary Ann’s smile lit up a room, and her love for everything and everyone oozed out of her pores; family and friends were the center of her life, and she was an educator at heart, and extremely generous of her time for any students, friends and family who wanted to learn the arts and family genealogy; she was also a lifelong learner and was not afraid to try new things; she had a child’s wonder of nature, and she attempted to spread beauty wherever she went; and to her former Marine husband, she was an angel who had fallen to the earth.

Memorial Service/Celebration of Life: Saturday, May 14th, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Cook-Walden Capital Parks Funeral Home, 14501 North Interstate 35, Pflugerville, TX 78660. Phone: 512-251-4118.

A special thanks goes to Mary Ann’s college roommate and best friend of the last thirty-one years, Jennifer Thayer, who was always there for her, especially during the last year. Friends like that are extremely rare works of art. The family would like also to thank the dedicated professionals at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) Head and Neck Center, most especially to Dr. Amy Hessel, Dr. Camilo Jimenez, and Ms. Jodi Knott; Heavenly Care Home Health Care, especially Viola Gamble; and Hospice Austin, especially Nurse Mary Blaney, who helped extend Mary Ann’s life with dignity and compassion in her final years.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to one of the following charities in memory of Mary Ann: Planned Parenthood; the Sam Houston State University Department of Art Friends of Art Scholarships Fund; and the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, TX.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.cookwaldencapitalparks.com for Mary Ann's family.