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IN LOVING MEMORY OF
Mary Louise
Loper Hadden
June 4, 1926 – January 13, 2024
Obituary
Mary Louise Loper Hadden was born June 4, 1926, near Sterling, Oklahoma, to Harrison M. and Otie Girdner Loper. She died January 13, 2024, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The youngest of three children, she learned to play the piano because her older sister, Helen, had the opportunity to take a few lessons while the church piano was stored at the Loper home and graciously offered/demanded to share what she was learning with her little sister. Mary was largely self taught after that but became proficient enough to share her talents at every church to which she belonged as well as to entertain her family and friends with her lively playing. Her children remember how much she loved playing "The Tennessee Waltz," popular tunes of the 1940s and 50s, and hymns from the
Broadman Hymnal
.
Mary graduated from Central High School in Oklahoma City during World War II. In addition to making top grades, playing French horn in the school band, and singing alto in the high school chorus, she worked at the telephone company as part of a mobilization of civilians to keep services going in the homeland during the war. After high school graduation, Mary worked at a TB testing company and at John A. Brown Department Store before winning the first scholarship given by her local Baptist Association to attend Oklahoma Baptist University. The August 1945 issue of the
Baptist Messenge
r announced this impressive achievement, praising her scores on a competitive examination as well as her church engagement as a choir member, Beginner Sunday School teacher, and Training Union leader.
While at OBU, she majored in home economics and met the love of her life, Robert George (Bob) Hadden, who was attending college on a G.I. bill. When he first saw her in the formal black gown her mother bought for her high school chorus performances, he said he was dazzled. She was "the prettiest girl I had ever seen." They were married in Oklahoma City at her mother's house. Mary wore a pale green Irish linen suit she made herself. It won a ribbon at the county fair.
Mary and Bob lived briefly in Oklahoma City, where he finished a degree in chemistry and she began raising their first two children, June Marie Hadden Hobbs and Robert George Hadden, Jr. In 1953, they moved to Wynnewood, Oklahoma, where their third child, Michael David Hadden, was born. While Bob worked at the Kerr-McGee Refinery there, Mary kept a well-run home and devoted her talents to her local church, where she taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and played the piano for church services. She and Bob led the church youth group, and she was also a member of the local music club.
In 1968, the Hadden family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where Mary continued her lifelong commitment to church and family. She loved teaching a ladies Bible class and playing piano for the Joy Choir at both Parkdale and Second Baptist Church. When Bob retired from Coastal States Petroleum Refinery, they made their seventies their favorite decade by traveling around the country and escaping to their secret getaway on an acreage where they raised cattle in Skidmore, Texas. A voracious reader, she could easily read a book a day when she had the time.
After Bob's death in 2010, Mary's home became the hub of family gatherings, especially each year on her birthday. Today that family includes their three children and their spouses, June Hadden Hobbs, Bob and Cheryl Hadden, and Mike and Michelle Hadden; eleven grandchildren; and many great and great-great grandchildren. Mary Hadden, beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, will be remembered for her unconditional love, her common-sense approach to life, and her devotion to the Lord and to the churches fortunate enough to have her as a member. We treasure her legacy!
We will celebrate Mary's life
at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 18
, at Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her ashes will be interred beside her husband's later this year at the Kenton Cemetery in Kenton, Oklahoma.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Mary Louise Loper Hadden, please visit our flower store.
Services
Celebration of Life
January
18
Second Baptist
Starts at 11:00 am
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