Mary Sowell Hutson

Today, our hearts are broken as we mourn the loss of our beloved sister, aunt, and friend Mary Katherine Sowell Hutson. Mary lost her battle with cancer and passed away surrounded by family on Monday, May 23, 2022, at Harbor House Hospice in Beaumont, Texas.

Born in Beaumont, Texas on August 8, 1953, Mary was the third child of four born to Jo Morrell Sowell and James Sowell.

Mary carved her special journey through life embracing every moment with an open mind. Failures were opportunities, setbacks were times to regroup and in no way did she ever let the status quo dictate her life. Mary lived in a world where anything was possible, loved a challenge spoke her mind, and rarely backed down from a dare. Mary navigated and saw the world with no boundaries or borders.

It was in that spirit that Mary taught a variety of fundamental lessons. Mary had a wicked sense of humor, loving to tell a good, or bad, joke, but mostly she will be remembered as a person who cared deeply and gave generously to the people she shared her life with and lived with gratitude and no regrets.

Mary and her siblings, Patricia, Rodney and Mike grew up in Amelia and Hamshire and attended St. Anthony Elementary School and graduated from Hamshire Fannett High School. With her mother a volleyball coach, Mary developed a love for team sports playing volleyball and basketball throughout her school years.

Soon after High School graduation, Mary began her professional career in Beaumont working in pharmaceutical sales for 10 years for Jefferson Drug Company. During this time, she excelled in sales and was recruited to sell commercial HVAC systems in Houston. While working in Houston Mary met and married the love of her life Daryl Thomas Hutson on August 10, 1991.

Mary and Daryl made their home in Savanah, Georgia, where she and her beloved husband led an active social life and built their life together. They traveled to the islands and mountains anytime they could. At home they enjoyed boating, golfing, cooking, gardening, and the seashore but mostly, Mary and Darryl loved to entertain friends and family at their home in Causton Bluff, Georgia.

A blessing to her family, Mary cared tirelessly and endlessly for her mother when she moved home to Southeast Texas after Daryl passed from cancer in 2004. Never letting their Mother Jo miss a birthday, baby shower, or family wedding. Mary also dedicated her life to her nieces and nephews enjoying daily babysitting duties, often letting them use anything in her house as a toy, weapon, or building block.

Mary enjoyed lunches with high school classmates and friends, neighborhood watch, family gatherings and her beloved dogs.

Mary was Catholic and enjoyed letting the chaplains at the hospitals know she had her very own priest, her cousin Monsignor Salvador Culotta.

We will all greatly miss her smile and adventuresome spirit. But now, we are grateful that she knows what it’s like to be genuinely unbound without disease or pain and with her beloved Darryl.

Mary is preceded in death by her husband, Daryl Hutson; parents, Jo and James Sowell; grandparents, Nunzie and Mary Culotta Morrell, and Mary and Horace Sowell.

Mary is survived by her sister, Patricia Schroeder (Bill); brothers, Rodney (Janice) and Mike (Carrie); brother-in-law, Doug (Mellissa) Hutson; sister- in- law, Kim Hutson Lewis; 11 nieces and nephews; 28 great-nieces and nephews; and many cousins who all loved and cared for Mary during her illness.

Serving as pallbearers are Mary’s nephews: Billy, Chad, and Lance Schroeder, Daniel Hood and Jamie, Justin, and Jared Sowell. Honorary Pallbearers are Bubba Roberts and Kent Morrell.

A gathering of family and friends to celebrate Mary’s life will begin at 5:00 p.m., with her funeral service to follow at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at Broussard’s, 1605 North Major Drive, Beaumont. Her graveside service will be 11:00 a.m., Saturday, June 4, 2022, at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Clay Street, Athens, Tennessee.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, P.O. Box 38, China, Texas 77613.