Mary Beth Hoeffner

A true class-act and a remarkable force of nature, Mary Beth was born September 16, 1927, in Henrietta, Texas. Mary Beth came into this world with her own agenda. The first born of Judge Vincent Stine and Alma Cooper Stine, she and her younger sister, Nancy, grew up in a loving home in a small town where they knew everybody and everybody knew them. Mary Beth applied herself in academics and graduated Valedictorian of her class when she was only fifteen. After one year at Baylor University, she transferred to Southern Methodist University where she majored in Fashion Design and was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Her senior year in college, she won a nationwide design contest sponsored by Charm Magazine, honoring top new designers. She traveled through the summer with Charm Magazine, hitting all the major fashion centers in the United States and Canada.

Soon after graduation, she married Karl E. Hoeffner, a career educator with DISD and worked as a designer until she gave birth to her daughter, Karol Ann Hoeffner, followed three years later with the birth of her son, James Vincent

Hoeffner. With two pre-school age children, she put her career on hold and devoted herself to raising a family. She was much too gentle to be an official “Tiger Mom.” A “Kitten Mom” was a more apt moniker to describe her gentle empowerment, her encouragement of creativity and the delight she took in her children’s development. She never mentioned the sacrifice she made to be a full-time mom, yet her kids never forgot it.

When her children finished high school, she re-entered the fashion industry as a designer and then later created a second career and business as a lighting consultant for such luminaries as Schonbek Crystal and Framburg. A master of reinvention, she embraced life on the road, covering five states traveling to meet with clients. She always managed a stop in New Orleans, so she could visit her “adopted sister,” Norma Dupont. Mary Beth loved to travel and made frequent trips to Los Angeles as well as abroad to Paris, England, Germany, and Thailand.

A sharp forward-thinker, she never shied away from change or new technology. Her three grandchildren, whom she cherished and adored, bragged to their friends that they had a grandmother who could send texts the length of Russian novels. Mary Beth was a wordsmith; she loved the nuance of language. It is no surprise that her son became an attorney, her daughter, a screenwriter and novelist, and all three grandchildren were inspired and nurtured by her belief in the power of words.

She lived her life with grace and style and throughout good times and bad, she never gave up on anything or anyone. She remained steadfast in her faith, believed in the power of prayer and was a lifelong member of Cliff Temple Baptist Church, where she taught an adult Sunday School class.

Mary Beth was preceded in death by her husband, Karl E. Hoeffner, her mother Alma Stine, her father Vincent Stine and her sister, Nancy Pierce. She is survived by her daughter, Karol Hoeffner Shrodes, son-in-law, Greg Shrodes of Manhattan Beach, California, granddaughter, Nancy Kaitlin Shrodes of Los Angeles, California, grandson, Travis Karl Shrodes of Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.

Mary Beth is further survived by her son, James V. Hoeffner, Esq., daughter-in-law, Suzanne Hoeffner of Austin, Texas, and grandson, James Andrew Hoeffner, Esq. of Paris, France.

Mary Beth is also survived by many nieces and nephews, including Susan Jansen of Ennis Texas, and Jeff and Kathy Pierce of Henrietta, Texas.

Services will be held on Saturday, February 18th at 2:00 p.m. at Cliff Temple Baptist Church. Following the service, a celebration of her life will be held at the Warwick Hotel.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you make donations to the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children or the Buckner Children’s Home.

True to her word and to her humor, her last President was a Democrat.