Mary Louise Leatherwood

Mary Louise was born in the countryside of Burleson County, youngest of the nine children of Robert Edgar Cupp and Ellie Faye Richardson. In her lifetime, Mary Louise celebrated the roles of daughter, sister, friend, sweetheart, minister’s wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was a woman of many talents, but one of her strongest was her ability to love and to make a home that nourished everyone. Softness and joy permeated everything about her.

Mary Louise was cherished by her sisters. After their mother died, Stella became a mother figure for her, and she lived with Stella and her husband, Claude McFarland and his son, J.C., until she was in high school. While living with another sister, Annie, her husband Dan Mitchell, and their 4 children in Galena Park, she met and married the love of her life, Gerald Paul Leatherwood, on November 8, 1940. While Gerald went to Europe during World War II, Mary Louise brought their first child, Judy, into the world, being cared for by his family and her sisters. She gave birth to David in 1948, and in the early 1950s, the family moved to Angleton, where Steve was born in 1958. Gerald pastored Central Assembly of God Church in Angleton for 28 years. Always by his side, Mary Louise loved and was loved by this congregation as well as later congregations in Uvalde, Pleasanton, and San Antonio. After retirement, she and Gerald moved to Sugar Land and enjoyed many years with family, travelling and celebrating life. After Gerald died in 2008, she continued activities of daily living, which she engaged with her particular brightness. Whether she was clipping comics for her grandchildren, writing letters, meeting with her Women’s Bible Study or the Sugar Land Sisters, finding recipes she knew we would love, baking cookies, reading, or visiting family, she showed us how to live and be happy regardless of circumstance.

Mary Louise leaves behind sweet memories of her grace, dignity, and beauty. She was funny, kind, optimistic, and the person everyone could turn to when they needed comfort, advice, or straightening out. She reminded us that we can choose to be happy every day, in spite of the trouble life brings, and she lived that philosophy until the end of her life. She maintained her independence, her concern and love for others.

She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 67 years, Rev. Gerald P. Leatherwood, her parents, Robert E. Cupp and Ellie Richardson, and her siblings, Maggie Storm, Annie Mitchell, Clifford Cupp, Stella McFarland, R.V. Christian, and Chester Cupp. Survivors include her children, Judy Leatherwood Smith and husband, Wayne, of Sugar Land, David Leatherwood and wife, Penny, of Ft. Worth, Texas, and Steven Leatherwood of Libertyville, Illinois, along with 5 grandsons and 3 granddaughters, 8 great-grandchildren, and numerous relations and friends.

On November 27 there was a family graveside service and interment in the community where she was born. She is buried in the Macedonia-Hix Baptist Church Cemetery, Caldwell, Texas. A memorial service will be held at St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Houston, TX on Friday, December 16 at 11a.m.

In gratitude for the kind, wise, and loving care given by the hospice staff for the last eight months of her life, the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be given to Houston Hospice, 1905 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030, or online at www.houstonhospice.com.