Maryallen C. Estes, 97, died peacefully with family at her bedside on April 18, 2024. She was born December 24, 1926, in Houston, Texas, to Florence A. and Frank D. Collins. She was preceded in death by her husband of 55 years, Bruce H. Estes Sr., and her son Bruce H. Estes Jr. She is survived by her children Anna Marie (Bill) McKinley, Florence (Fernando Perez) Estes, John (Alice) Estes and Allen (Cheryl) Estes; her granddaughter Sarah Jane (Chad) Roth; and her great-granddaughter Olivia Roth.
Raised during the Great Depression by her single mother in “The Heights,” a tight-knit Houston community, Maryallen cherished her childhood neighbors and sustained lifelong connections to them. A graduate of Rice University, she married Bruce in 1950 and moved to St. Louis in 1951, where Bruce worked at McDonnell Aircraft as an electrical engineer and they raised their children. In the early 1960s, the family lived in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Bruce served on the launch team for the first manned space flights and Maryallen had a chance to study art. An accomplished artist, she drew and painted all her life. Well into her nineties, she gifted many with paintings of their favorite birds!
In the late 1970s, Maryallen, Bruce, and their youngest son, Allen, lived in Cherbourg, France, where Maryallen flourished and made dear friends. In 2022, she returned to France for the annual D-Day Anniversary Festival in Normandy, commemorating the landing of allied troops on June 6, 1944. As the spouse of a World War II veteran, she was showered with honors and delighted by the festivities.
Maryallen taught elementary school when her own children were in school, and in middle age, she earned a Master’s in Social Work from St. Louis University. She worked in social services in Florida when Bruce retired from McDonnell in St. Louis and they returned to the “Space Coast” area. They ultimately built a home in North Carolina and moved to Burnsville, N.C., in the early 1990s.
Maryallen loved living in Burnsville, where she worked as a social worker at Yancey Nursing Center and she and Bruce were founding members of St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Upon retirement, she served as a volunteer for the Family Violence Coalition, the Art Guild, the Quilt Guild and the Senior Tar Heel Legislature, an advocacy group representing the needs of older citizens in the state legislature. She also supported the Yancey Senior Center by writing and publishing the stories of area seniors in two volumes of “Their Lives Made A Difference,” which were sold to benefit the Center.
In the fall of 2015, long-widowed and having sustained several falls, Maryallen agreed to move to Chicago to be near her daughters. Six years ago, she moved into The Breakers, a senior community on the North Side, where she continued to volunteer, stay active and make friends. She also replicated her Burnsville fundraising strategy by interviewing residents, writing their stories, selling three volumes of them, and donating all proceeds to the Holiday Fund for staff at The Breakers.
Maryallen will be remembered for her unwavering loyalty to family and friends, her many creative endeavors, her commitment to social justice, and her capacity to affirm life in the face of adversity, whether by flying to the side of a friend in need or baking banana bread!
A memorial service will be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1509 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at 11:00 am, followed by a reception in the church parlor. The family invites memorial donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center at https://support.splcenter.org.
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