August 27, 1934-October 30, 2026

Mary Katherine Ford Henry was the first of three children born to Lawton and Vernell Ford in Ponder, Texas near Denton. She came into the world during the Great Depression, and life was hard. Her family were sharecroppers, picking cotton and other crops wherever there was work to be found. Her younger brother, Glen, worked alongside her in the fields and always looked out for his older sister. They did not have much, but they had the love of one another. Her sister, Gail, came along later, and the two became as close as sisters could possibly be. They loved singing together in the church choir and often sang duets together at Christmas services. Mary would later serve as Gail’s matron of honor. The family eventually moved the Denton, Texas where Mary attended and graduated from Denton High School.

Mary met her future husband, Ellis Wayne “Bob” Henry, through her best high school friend, Charlene Stinchcomb, who happened to be Bob’s niece. Mary and Bob began dating and sneaking off to dances — something good Baptist girls were not supposed to do. Bob would often tease her by saying they should run off and get married, and Mary would always say NO! One night in late November, near the end of their date, Bob said it again: “We should run off and get married.” To his shock and surprise, Mary said, “OK, let’s do it.” They found a Baptist minister willing to marry them that night, and Mary called her mother to tell her that she and Bob were getting married. She was 17 years old.

After Mary graduated from high school, Bob went to work in the oil fields with his brother, and the couple made their home in Midland. Shortly afterward, Bob was drafted into the Army, and Mary moved back near her family in Denton and began working in Fort Worth. When Bob returned from Korea, they began building their family. They had four sons: Robert, Terry, David, and Jeff. Terry did not survive and passed away soon after birth.

Sometime after Robert’s birth, Mary and Bob had a home built in Denton using his GI Bill, near the edge of the North Texas State College campus, known today as UNT. David and Jeff were both born into this home. Bob began taking classes at UNT and received his degree in 1961, before Jeff’s birth. Soon after, he received an offer to come to Houston’s Manned Spacecraft Center at NASA. Ellis moved to Houston ahead of the family, and Mary followed just a few short weeks later after Jeff’s birth. She took her very first airline flight from Dallas to Houston with two small boys and a baby in her arms.

The move first brought them to Pasadena, as the Johnson Space Center did not yet exist. Mary was given the important task of finding a home where they could raise their family. That home was in Friendswood, where she and Ellis would live for the rest of their lives. Friendswood was the place God had placed her, and there she found First Baptist Church Friendswood, where her circle of friends and family grew. FBC was likely the deciding factor that made her know this was where she needed to be.

Mary remained a stay-at-home mother for several years, but eventually began working as a cashier at Baker’s Food Market. She later worked at Friendswood Cleaners, Hill Sand Company and finally followed Ellis to work at NASA. First as a payroll clerk and later as Head Cashier, where she interacted daily with astronauts, directors, and many others connected to the space program.

Mary was a faithful member of First Baptist Church Friendswood from the beginning of her life in Friendswood. She joined a Sunday school class, taught Sunday school classes, even the Pastor’s class sometimes when he was away, served in Vacation Bible School, Women’s Missionary Union, Girl’s GA’s, Boys’ RA’s. She even stood at the front of the church and challenged/guilted men to step-up and lead the boys of the church to be followers of Christ, but her greatest joy was singing in the choir. She was especially proud that her boys, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren all came to faith and were baptized in “Her” church. First Baptist Church Friendswood always held, and will always hold, a special place in her heart for everything and everyone it brought into her life.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents, Lawton and Vernell Ford; many aunts and uncles; her brother, Glen; her husband, Ellis; and her son, Terry and Brother-in-law James Simpkins.

She leaves behind her son Robert and his wife, Paula, their children, Callie, Katie and her husband Christopher, and Daniel; her son David and his wife, Janie, their son, Denton and his wife Brittnay Mossburg, his son Shane Ellis, Mary’s only grandson; her youngest son Jeff;  sister Gail Simpkins, sister-in law Teresa Ford and many nieces and nephews.

Services to be announced.