Mary Pepper Vaden

Daughter of George and Evelyn Daugherty, Mary Barbara Daugherty grew up during the Great Depression on a farm in northern Indiana. Ahead of her time as an ambitious student, she was admitted to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1947. It was at GWU that she met her husband-to-be, Hobart Garrett Pepper Jr., who was a World War II veteran and a pilot in the Army Air Corps. They were married after graduation in 1950.

Lt. Pepper was recalled to the then-newly-formed United States Air Force due to the Korean Conflict, and so Mary became a military wife. Their son George was born in 1957 in Newfoundland, and Hobart's career had them in many interesting places, including Panama and Japan.

When Lt. Col. Pepper retired in 1972, the family moved to San Antonio, where Mary became a successful realtor and a breeder of Lhasa-Apso show dogs, one of which won Best in Breed at Westminster two years in a row.

After her husband passed in 1986, Mary re-married to an old family friend, Col. Joe Corder Vaden, whose wife also passed the same year. They had over fifteen years together before Joe passed in 2004.

She is survived by her son George.

Visitation will be held Thursday, February 23, 2012 from 6PM to 8PM at Sunset Funeral Home. A funeral service will be Friday, February 24, 2012 at 3PM at Sunset Funeral Chapel. She will be laid to rest at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery at a later date.