In sadness we show another classmate Mary Jane Callaway who passed on in 2022. 

Mary Jane Callaway Joseph was born December 12, 1943, to Mabel Wells and Jay Callaway, and finished on this earth March 16, 2022 (cakes are done, people are finished—per MJ).

Mary Jane began her battle with Parkinsonism and mild dementia in 2015 and depression before that. Some of her favorite things over the past 78 years included fishing on her parents’ party barges at Greers Ferry and Lake DeGray, watching her little brother Jimbo play baseball, the Taurus parties in Weatherford, all-inclusive trips to Mexico with family & friends from Wimbledon, feeding her squirrels & catfish & taking life-on-the-lake photos, and gambling at the ‘casina’ with her sister Judy and mom Mabel.

Her favorite job was working the window of the inaugural season at the Sam Houston Raceway.  My best memories as a teen involved trips to Hot Springs at Oaklawn—to sit in Mr. Booker’s box on the finish line (never met him but we sure thanked him a lot). Mimi and GrandMimi would get tips from the restroom attendants; I was mortified at the time, but now Callie, Grant, and I have the same ability to make friends with all- especially for hot gambling tips.  

MJ was the mom all my friends wanted to be with— always good for advice and hang out time with no judgment.  When Kent came over to take to me to my senior prom in 1988, Mom made him gamble on the Kentucky Derby. They were instant buddies, and Mom told me then he was a keeper; glad I listened.

Her biggest fan was Callaway Pope.  Mimi and  Callie were ‘besties’ with lots of inside jokes and good times spent these past 20 years. We moved to my parents’ neighborhood in 2014, and there was definitely a hand guiding us together. The relationships between Grant and his Skipper and Callie and her Mimi were strong and unbreakable. My parents valued our time together and built traditions such as Ben Franklins in the Christmas palm tree, Duck on the Drive and luminaries, and trips to the Harbor House at Galveston for the boat parade.  

Mom and Dad welcomed our friends to their home in Bentwater, and everyone called them Mimi and Skipper. They were surrogate parents and grandparents to many. Their backyard paradise still  brings the masses of family and friends, and it’s our mission to continue their legacy and build on it.

We cannot thank our Live Oak Senior Living family enough.  After a hospital stay early this year, hospice was brought in.  Our director made sure we knew that Live Oak was MJ’s home and that her ‘people’, both us and the girls, would be there for her ending on this earth.  They would rub mom’s feet, compete with each other as to who loved Mom the most (the bad ass club), sing to Willie Nelson and George Straight, dance to the 50s tunes, and make Mom laugh and smile when life was at its darkest. As an only ‘child’, I feel like I have sisters helping us through this time. Live Oak director Dr. Sue became the sounding board I needed to make decisions best for us all. Nurse practitioner Becca Botkin took care of both Mom and Dad their last years, and I’m thankful to call her my friend.

We will honor MJ’s wish of no funeral or celebration of life, but we will celebrate her with stories from when she felt good and made us laugh- she was unfiltered and funny as hell.

Cheers to Mary Jane. She loved us all with all she had. She’s dancing with Johnny again.