Obituaries

Martha Sue Cole Lay departed this world on February 2nd, 2016, due to complications arising from living a long life that was also rich and full. She began her 95 years at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Lucas on May 6th, 1920, and was named for her grandmothers, Martha (Mattie) Davis Lucas and Susie Binkley Cole. She was the younger daughter of Tom Randolph (TR) Cole and Nina Lucas Cole. Her older sister, Nina Evelyn Cole Northrop, is deceased. She married James Vernon (Max) Lay and bore two sons. Her elder son, James Randolph Lay, is deceased. Her younger son, John Arthur Lay, lives with his wife, Nancy, in Taos, New Mexico. She has two granddaughters; Julia Lay of Austin, Texas and Sarah Lay of Peralta, New Mexico. Her great-grandson, Spencer White, lives with his mother in Austin. She is also survived by her beloved niece, Nina Ellen Northrop, who has devoted much of her time to Sue’s care and well-being in her last years. Sue continued a family tradition of scholarship by graduating as Valedictorian of Sherman High School in 1937 and being awarded her B.A. in Mathematics by the University of Texas at Austin in 1941, though she did much of her undergraduate work at Austin College. She had a gift for accounting and bookkeeping which she started developing by helping keep the books for the family-owned Lucas Food Stores while still a teenager. During World War II, she served as a civilian clerk at Camp Wallace and for the Civilian Personnel Office at Perrin Field. For several years in the 1960s, she managed the Credit Union for Johnson and Johnson in Sherman. She assumed the responsibilities for managing the family-owned Lucas Real Estate business when her uncle retired and continued at this task until the business was dissolved in 2003. Sue developed her passion for travel during many family vacations taken while she was a child. These included trips to Mexico and the American Southwest while the roads were mostly dirt and the country still fairly wild. Her more recent travels have often used the chance to “see some new birds” as an excuse. Many of Sue’s friends will remember her for her passion for “birding.” She went to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge to watch birds with a local group of birders almost every Thursday for over thirty years starting in 1981. She also volunteered at Hagerman’s visitor center every Saturday for most of that time. Her love of the outdoors and watching birds was another family tradition learned from her mother and grandmother and passed along to her children and grandchildren. She touched many lives through volunteering at the Grayson County Health Unit’s Well Baby Clinic for many years. Other friends may remember her primarily for her devotion to and service of the Central Christian Church in Sherman, of which she was a lifelong member. She held many offices on both the Church Board of Directors and Christian Women’s Fellowship. Her service as Treasurer for the CWF continued until 2015, when her declining health forced her to retire. She requested that those wishing to remember her do so with donations to the Central Christian Church in lieu of flowers. Her funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, February 6, 2015, in Dannel Funeral Chapel. Rev Mark Berrier, of Central Christian Church, will officiate. Online condolences may be registered at www.dannelfuneralhome.com