Mary Alley

Mary Ann Alley of Carrizo Springs, Texas passed away on February 24, 2021 in San Antonio, Texas. She was born in Crystal City, Texas to Juanita Mae (Smith) and Trinidad E. Sanchez on March 28, 1947.

Mary Ann lived on a farm south of Crystal City on Farm to Market 65 and attended school in Crystal City, Texas. She was raised in the Catholic Church, attending Sacred Heart Catholic Church throughout her life.

Mary Ann and Roy Alley became friends in school and remained friends for many years. In 1966, Roy joined the United States Marine Corps. During Roy’s service, including wartime, they regularly kept up correspondence.

Mary Ann and Roy were married shortly after he returned from the Marine Corps; they were married on May 26, 1968 at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, they remained husband and wife for over 52 years.

After finishing school, Mary Ann went on to have a 41 year long career with the Carrizo Springs ISD, she worked as the school librarian for both the Elementary and Junior High campuses.

She always took special interest in her students and went above and beyond for many of them. Mary Ann was known to always take extra money with her on school field trips or out of town school functions to give to a child that couldn’t afford to buy food or snacks.

She began a millionaire book club for her Junior High School students to encourage them to read, always making sure to have activities and snacks for the participates when they would get together.

Mary Ann also helped support the Junior High Basketball team by building a makeshift snack bar that she would assemble in the hallway next to the gym with the snack items she would pick up from Sam’s Store in San Antonio.  Her inventory was always bought out of pocket with no outside funding; all the profits from her sales would go to support booster clubs for her school.

Mary Ann’s passion for teaching also flowed over into her family life, with every new baby born into the family she would wake up their brain with bright colors, configurations, how to sound out the alphabet, and numbers; by the time each child was 4 years old they were above and beyond head start.

She was always learning and mastering new subjects, one of which was technology. She learned and mastered every new form of technology and was a great help to all, like her husband who was not so blessed.

As a mother she was always the volunteer for her children’s 4-H, girl scouts, bake sales, cub scouts, little league baseball, football, soccer, weightlifting, junior livestock show, and many many more.

We all lost this amazing, loving, caring, and tireless dynamo due to COVID-19 with complications of pneumonia. The empty space she has left can never be filled. All of our hearts are broken, for there will never be another in this world like her.

As her husband, I know if all of you look around and see any other families suffering from this horrid pandemic, it would be her wish for you to reach out and help them.

Visitation will begin on Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 12:00 PM followed by a recitation of the Holy Rosary at 7:00 p.m. at Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, March 5, 2021 at 10: AM at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  Interment will follow at Uvalde Cemetery.