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Submitted: 9/12/21 • Approved: 9/29/21 • Last Updated: 10/2/21 • R456101-G456100-S3
Mary Ware Nobles Lyles (1908-2007)
On August 11, 1908, Mary was one of five children born to Callie Dorris Nobles and Henry Augusta Nobles, an early pioneer in the development of the Texas Panhandle. As a child of this visionary, yet successful businessman, a civic leader known as a philanthropist, poet, and philosopher, Mary developed qualities that sustained her throughout her life. She had great strength of character and resourcefulness. She was independent, kind hearted and generous; devoted to her family, friends and church.
Mary Nobles grew up in Amarillo and enjoyed an idealistic childhood surrounded by siblings and relatives. She graduated from Amarillo High School, built upon land donated by her family. She then attended National Park Seminary in Forest Glen Maryland and the University of Texas, Austin, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority. There she met and fell in love with Austinite Julian Knox Lyles. They were married on April 26, 1930, in Amarillo, Texas. The newlyweds lived in Washington, D.C. and Dallas, Texas, while Mr. Lyles was with a very young American Airlines.
In 1935, Mary Lyles joined her husband's family at the First Baptist Church of Austin and was a member there for 60 + years. The love and concern received from the members of this church and of "The Friendship Class" always meant so very much to her. She was a sustaining member of the Junior League of Austin, and the Pi Beta Phi Alumnae club. The sustaining force in Mary Lyles's life was her love for the Lord, her children and her grandchildren. Surviving children are her two daughters and their husbands, Lynn and Louis R. Brill of Austin and Ruth and Roy F. Beery of Houston. Her grandchildren are Mary Ware Murchison, Margaret Murchison Borth and her husband Dan, Callie Beery Simons, her husband John, Maggie Beery Vermillion, her husband Rob, Lillie Beery Hutcheson, her husband J.P., Jennie Nobles Brill and great grandsons Cooper Knox Simons and Shepherd Beery Simons. Mary Lyles was a gentle, loving and caring mother, grandmother, and friend.
Her door was always open and gestures of hospitality always abundant. She was known for her great sense of humor and her propensity for laughter. She was a voracious reader, card player, baker and traveler. She traveled extensively for the last thirty-five years of her life. She loved visiting San Miguel de Allende year after year: sometime with friends, but usually with her two daughters and granddaughters. Mary Lyles' last big trip was taking her granddaughters on a cruise to celebrate her 90th birthday. Her legacies, lessons, childhood folk ballads and many, many stories of early life in the Panhandle will live on through her grandchildren. She taught them to be courageous, to have faith, to love the Lord, to believe in life, and to laugh at themselves. Through hours and hours of playing the card game "Spite and Malice" all her granddaughters learned to be good sports and to lose or win gracefully (they usually lost!).
Mary Lyles was dearly cherished and will be deeply missed by her family and friends.
Contributed on 9/12/21
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Record #: 456101