Mary Lou (Ramirez) Dunkley

She was a pioneer, balancing her desire to be a wife and mother with her equally strong need to fulfill her ambitions as an educated businesswoman. She was born ambitious and driven, who even as a young girl of 12 would represent her family in business matters because of her fluency in both Spanish and English. The first in her family wanting to pursue secondary education, she graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration in July, 1963.

She challenged and lovingly insisted that her younger sisters pursue higher education, resulting in their leading successful careers in teaching and nursing. In many ways, she was both an older sister and a second mom to them. She had a long and successful career at Lackland, Kelly and Brooks Air Force Bases, working at different jobs, including executive assistant and procurement manager, where she was responsible at times for millions of dollars worth of equipment. There were no computers then, so a large part of her job was taking dictation by hand, writing in shorthand and typing the final correspondence. She could type with lightning speed, achieving a congressional speed of over 180 words per minute, a skill she was very proud of and liked to sometimes brag about.

In her spare time, she loved, loved, loved to dance and was an instructor at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, where she met her future husband, John Daniel Dunkley, in 1955. After a whirlwind romance, they married in October, 1956. She continued to work through the births of her first three children, and then became a successful real estate broker through the births of her last 2 children.

In 1988, she attended San Antonio College with her youngest daughter, where she earned her certification as a paralegal. She loved working, but at the same time she relished making homemade birthday cakes for her kids. During her lifetime, she survived breast cancer, a thyroidectomy, diabetes, and several open heart surgeries.

She was old school tough- for the past 4 years, she took care of our father as he struggled with dementia, early onset Alzheimer's, diabetes and progressive kidney disease. Our youngest brother, Kenny returned home the last years of his short life to help take care of both of them, enabling them to live independently in the home they shared for the past 44 years. When Kenny died unexpectedly in 2012, our brother Johnny and his family assumed the front line and made sure they were safe and could continue to live their lives independently. On the day she unexpectedly left this world, she was lucky to be attended to by her grandson John George Dunkley and her son Johnny. She did not die alone.

She is survived by her daughters Denise Louise Mayfield, Terry Marie Timmerman, Sandra Ann Batlouni and her husband Fouad, son John Russell Dunkley and his wife Anne, her sister Marta Minica, 4 granddaughters, 3 grandsons, one great granddaughter, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her youngest son, Kenneth Daniel Dunkley in 2012; her husband of 59 years, John only 6 months ago in September, 2015; her half-brother Domingo Ramirez and her sister Bertha Riden.

Visitation will be held on Sunday, March 27th from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM in the chapel at Porter Loring on McCullough with recitation of the Rosary at 7:00 PM.

On Monday, March 28th a Mass of the Resurrection will be held at 10:00 AM at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 600 Oblate with interment to follow in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Arrangements are being made for a reception after the services.