Funeral service for Mary McCabe Herrin, 99, Dallas, Texas will be 2:00 p.m. Friday, March 14, 2014 in the Becker -Rabon Funeral Home of Fletcher Chapel, Fletcher, Oklahoma with Rev. Jim Hall, Pastor, Fletcher Christian Church officiating. Mrs. Herrin died March 8, 2014 in a long term care facility in Dallas surrounded by new and old friends and her family. Burial will be in the Fletcher Cemetery under the direction of the Becker-Rabon Funeral Home of Fletcher. Mrs. Herrin was born on February 14, 1915 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the loving daughter to Charles and Florence McCabe. Mary's Mother and Daddy were married in 1901 and for fourteen years prayed for a child. Finally on February 14, 1915 (Valentine's Day), Mary Lou came along. They thought she was the best valentine ever. Mary grew up on a farm in Fletcher, Oklahoma and although she was an only child she had cousins and friends who loved to visit her on the farm. Mary's childhood was fairly typical as a farmer's daughter. She was up before the rooster crowed and spent time milking cows, slopping hogs, tending the orchard, killing chickens, collecting eggs, chasing chickens, picking cotton and picking fruit from the orchard. Her mother loved to cook and Mary loved cleaning house and washing and ironing. During her childhood, there was no indoor plumbing so she used the outhouse and used the Sears catalogue for toilet paper. More specifically she used the black/white pages because they were softer than the colored pages. She thought she was in"tall" cotton" since she didn't have to use a corn cob. She drove her daddy around Oklahoma when he ran for Comanche County, OK commissioner. She also helped campaign for him. She was only 12 years old. He won. As a teenager, she had birthday parties in her big country yard. Her sweet sixteen party was her most memorable with so many friends gathered around. She had watermelon parties where she ate the hearts out of the watermelons and threw the rest to the hogs. Mary met the man of her dreams at the local community center. He had come to one of the socials with a friend of his. Mary was dating someone else but when she met Herb (affectionately known by friends as "Rooster"), I fell hook, line and sinker and that was that. They dated for two years and then married. Her father wanted her to go to college but she told him it would be a waste of money since she had met her future in Herbert D. Herrin. On August 15, 1933, Mary married her dreamboat in her mother and daddy's house. Herb and Mary worked for her daddy for about 7 or 8 years. Their two boys were born on that farm -Charles and Bobby. They were 18 months apart. They were born in the house with a nurse helping out - the good old days. However, Herb wasn't into farming and went to California to become foreman for North American. They lived in Torrence, California. They soon decided that two earthquakes were enough and Herb was able to transfer to North American in Grand Prairie, Texas. One good thing happened in California - that's where our daughter Marilyn became a twinkle in our eye. She was born shortly after they arrived in Dallas in 1942. Mary was living her dream. She had the love of her life, her home, her two boys and her daughter. She was a homebody. She not only handled most of the childrearing, the physical aspects of housekeeping but she handled all of the finances - sort of the chief controlling officer. She never outgrew the love of cleaning and washing and ironing. I had the whitest whites on the clothes line. She never believed in automatic washer dryers. She used my wringer washer until she could no longer wash clothes. You could take the girl out of the farm but couldn't take the farm out of the girl. When Mary was 28, she lost all of her teeth and was afraid her husband wouldn't love her anymore. But he did. She also suffered a serious rheumatoid arthritis attack in her 30's and the doctors said she would never walk again. But she did. When her daddy died, her mother moved in with her and her family. She sold their farm in Oklahoma to friends so she still had visiting rights. Her children grew up to be successful in their respective careers: Charles became a successful owner of his own business in insurance. Bobby became a successful master plumber. Her daughter Marilyn had many careers over time and although successful in them she was most known for her success in her advocacy for employees with disabilities while working for the government. When Mary and Herb became empty nesters, they travelled to Las Vegas several times, and visited their daughter who was working at Kennedy Space Center as well as going to Disney World. Mary loved eating out. Favorite restaurants were KFC, IHOP and Red Lobster. On special occasions she loved the big buffets at the Fairmont or the Swedish Smorgasbord Her husband retired sooner than expected because he became legally blind. Mary continued lovingly taking care of him until his death 55 years after marriage. She continued living in her house until she was 96 years old when she became wheelchair bound and the house couldn't accommodate her needs. She drove until she was 88 years of age. Never had a ticket or a wreck. After hearing on the news that we lose our reactive times as we age, she decided it wasn't a good thing for her to keep driving so she put up her keys forever. She lost her husband in 1988. She outlived her two sons: Charles, her oldest, died of appendiceal carcinoid cancer (cancer of the appendix) in 2002; Bob (her baby boy) died of lung cancer and COPD. She said that outliving a child truly is the hardest thing that one can go through in life. She grieved daily over the loss of the three men in my life as well as having to move out of her home of 65 years. Mary lived the last couple of years of her life in a long term care facility enjoying the opportunity of meeting her hero Ebby Halliday and spending time with her companion Suzie. Although Suzie was a doll, she became known as Mary's best friend and everyone wanted to have a picture taken with Mary and Suzie. Although Mary never had dementia and was always in the present, Suzie was an unexplainable phenomena that everyone embraced and enjoyed. Suzie became a real part of the family. The last two birthdays were special. When Mary was 98, she shared her birthday with her long time neighbor Doris who also was born on Valentine's day. Mary's 99th birthday lunch was catered by KFC and Colonel Sanders visited. When Mary was told that the Colonel might bring the chicken himself, she replied "that will be a miracle, he's been dead for years." Mary was able to sit on the commode up until mid-December 2013 and enjoyed food up until 5 February 2014. The inability to enjoy those activities caused a major downward spiral. Sally Fields said in a movie called "Two Weeks", that she didn't know how important her last pee was going to be when she had a catheter put in. Mary desperately wanted her bms on a commode. Mary was a loving wife and mother. Her daughter had the following nicknames for her: "the come back kid", the Energizer Bunny, and like the Timex watch . Now, like the Energizer Bunny, she'll keep on goin' and goin' in Heaven and won't need a commode; unlike the Timex watch, she won't have to take any more lickin's but she will keep on tickin' and eatin' the fingerlickin KFC for sure up in heaven with her loved ones; and like the comeback kid, she will come back as her daughter's Guardian Angel. Left to cherish her memory is her daughter, Marilyn L. Herrin, Mesquite, Texas, her granddaughter Cherie King and her husband Steve King, her great grandson Matthew Goughnour and her great granddaughter Katy Goughnour. In addition to cherish her memory will be her extended family including but not limited to: Suzie, her constant companion of 15 years (a doll whom people grew to think as real), Gail Surratt, a caregiver unparalleled, Chris McGoughy, Lulu, Dess, Gerene, Jan and the A team at CCYoung, the crew at KFC on Jupiter and Garland Road, Jim and Doris Duncan, Susan Hansen, Lester, Maria and Arnold.