Mary Ann Hayhurst

Mary Ann Hayhurst, 76, of Arlington, entered the presence of her Lord and Savior on January 3, 2025, after valiantly fighting various liver ailments. Celebration of life: 11:30 a.m. January 14, at the Moore Funeral Home Bowen Road Chapel, 4216 South Bowen Road, Arlington, TX 76016. Visitation: from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, January 13, at the Moore Funeral Home Bowen Road Chapel. Interment: 1:30 p.m. January 14, at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, TX 75211.

Mary Ann was born March 31, 1948, in Meridian, Mississippi, the youngest of three children, to Clifford Odell Avera and Eula Mae Avera. On a trip to visit her sister and brother-in-law at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in the summer of 1965, she met Roy Robert Hayhurst, a young Army sergeant, whom she would marry that October. They were married 57 years before he preceded her in death in 2022. During her time as an Army spouse, they lived in Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, Alaska, Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts before he retired and they relocated to Arlington in 1980.

Mary Ann was a devoted stay-at-home mother to their two children, son Roy and daughter Cristina. In the late 1980s, Mary Ann returned to work where she spent over 25 years working for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Fort Worth. She enjoyed writing fiction, both short stories and books. One of her articles she wrote was featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Time to Thrive, where she told the story of her first recital as she learned to play the piano as an adult.

She relished her retirement as it allowed her to be a full time “Emo” to her three grandsons and one granddaughter. Roy and Mary Ann enjoyed travel around the United States in their RV and a trip to Israel with their church family. She was a devoted Christian who loved her family and country.

They had two children and four grandchildren. Their lives involved many dance recitals, T-ball, soccer and basketball games as well as Friday night football. Roy and Mary Ann were members of Walnut Ridge Baptist Church in Mansfield, Texas, for the past 18 years, and before that, spent 25 years as members at Fielder Road Baptist Church, in Arlington, Texas, where Mary Ann taught children’s Sunday school and volunteered in the church library.

Mary Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Roy; her sister, Bettye Avera Wicker; and her parents, Clifford Odell and Eula Mae Avera. She is survived by her brother, Larry Avera, and wife, Pamela of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida; son, Roy Hayhurst, Jr., and wife, Dondi Jordan Hayhurst of Arlington, Texas; daughter, Cristina Hayhurst Howard and husband, Mark Howard of Boerne, Texas; and four grandchildren, Jordan Robert Hayhurst, Matthew Ryan Hayhurst, Lindsey Elizabeth Howard, and Kenneth Boyd Howard; plus many beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.