Mary L. Sims

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. Jeremiah 29:11-14 NIV Mary Lou Brown was born the oldest of four children to Hansel Edward Brown and Mary Lucille Topping in Henderson, Texas on October 10, 1934. She was valedictorian of her graduating class at Whitewright High School and received a scholarship to any Texas state university. She chose instead to attend the alma mater of her paternal aunt and uncle, Bethany Peniel College in Bethany, Oklahoma. Upon completion of her freshman year, she returned to her parents’ home in Cedar Hill, Texas for the summer. One Sunday evening, while attending services at Cedar Hill Church of the Nazarene, she was introduced to a young Army Staff-Sergeant, recently discharged from active duty in Europe, named Lowell Preston Sims. They married on April 10, 1954, settled on Bromfield Street in Oak Cliff, and joined Dallas First Church of the Nazarene at 10th and Beckley. Mary began her career as the office secretary for the regional offices of McCormick/Schilling Corporation from which she retired 28 years later as a District Sales Manager. After starting their family, they moved back to Cedar Hill and bought the home on Short Street that they lived in the rest of their lives. Mary’s service to the church included fifteen years as the volunteer youth pastor, Sunday School teacher, church greeter, social committee member, and church secretary. She was a loving wife, a proud mother of two sons, adoring grandmother of three, and doting great-grandmother of seven. She passed quietly from this earth from complications of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) on June 23, 2016. Mary is preceded in death by both parents and her husband Lowell. She is survived by sisters Juanita Simmons and Lynnette Murphy, brother Lonnie Brown, sons P. Lynn Sims and wife Tommye and Mark L. Sims and wife Debbie; grandchildren Jeremiah Sims and wife Amber, their children Levi and Everitt; Jason D. Sims and wife Katie, their children Ellie Kate, Kensington, and Kade; Jordan E. Davis and husband Matthew, and their children Aiden and Carson. Memorial Services are scheduled for 1:30 P. M. on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 at Dallas First Church of the Nazarene 825 N. Cockrell Hill Rd. at Pleasant Run Rd., DeSoto, TX 75115. Entombment will be at Dallas/Fort Worth National Cemetery, Dallas, Texas.