Mary Lou Connelly

Mary Louise Powell Connelly, a Temple native and avid ballroom dancer, died in Austin, Texas, September 8, 2017, a day after her 82nd birthday.

Mary Lou was born September 7, 1935, to Joseph Shular Powell and Ruby Elva Kennedy Powell in Walters, Oklahoma. She graduated from Temple High School in 1953 and worked at a bank in Wichita Falls, Texas, until she married William Watson in 1954.  

Watson was stationed at an Air Force base in England when the couple’s twin boys, Mark Watson and Gerald Watson, were born. After England, Mary Lou moved to Massachusetts and then to Austin, Texas, where she met Webb Connelly, whom she married on March 22, 1968.

Mary Lou enjoyed sky diving and ballroom dancing. In Austin, she worked in the Civil Service, retiring from the Internal Revenue Service after more than 20 years of service.

Mary Lou was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters who died in infancy, a brother Bobby Keith, son Gerald Watson who died in infancy and is interred in England, and granddaughter Caroline Watson.

She is survived by husband Webb, son Mark, and granddaughter Katherine Watson, all of Austin, Texas; brother Harold Powell and his wife Lois of Temple, Oklahoma; a nephew, two nieces and many friends and family.    

Funeral services will be Friday, September 15, at 10:00 am at the First Baptist Church, Temple, Oklahoma. Viewing will be Thursday, September 14, at the Hart-Wyatt Funeral Home in Temple.

 
A Memorial Prayer Service will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 20 at Cook-Walden Funeral Home Chapel, 6130 N. Lamar, Austin, TX 78752