MARY ELLEN HOLLEY

1922-2017

Mary Ellen Holley, a retired Houston stockbroker who shattered glass ceilings and an avid gardener whose lush corner yard in north Houston was a riot of color every spring, died May 29. She was 94,

Always stylish and charmingly straightforward, Mary Ellen found herself in the mid-1950s basically running the small Tyler office of the brokerage firm of Rauscher Pierce, even though she wasn’t a licensed broker. Earning her license in 1958, she was among the first licensed female stock brokers in Texas.

Despite that distinction, she still encountered discrimination in a male-dominated field. Her paycheck, for example, had to be made out to her husband, and she had to fight to be invited to company meetings, among other discourtesies typical of the era.

In a career that spanned nearly half a century, she prevailed. “She was very intelligent, very competent and very ethical. All her clients ended up being her friends,” said Lisa Westmoreland, a retired broker who considered Mary Ellen both mentor and close friend. Mary Ellen retired from Rauscher Pierce in the late 1990s but looked after the investments of several “little ol’ lady friends” until a year or so ago.

She was born Mary Ellen Neal in Kirbyvile, Texas, where her father was a purchasing agent for Kirby Lumber Co. and her mother a school teacher. The family moved to Beaumont when Mary Ellen was a youngster.

As an adolescent, she contracted polio and was unable to attend school for two years. Her mother took charge of her education at home, and she graduated from high school at 14. She moved to Houston a few years later and worked for Shell Oil Co. during World War II.

In 1946, she met Robert Holley, a young Navy combat pilot recently discharged and working for Peden Iron and Steel in Houston. They married on June 7, 1946, and were still a devoted couple at Mary Ellen’s death nearly 71 years later.

She discovered gardening in Tyler, where the couple lived for 15 years before returning to Houston. In the spring the Holley home on Tucumcari Dr. was usually the hit of the azalea tour.

Bob and Mary Ellen also loved music. When they lived in Tyler, they rarely missed the big-band sounds of Harry James, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich and others when the bands stopped off in either Tyler or Longview on their way from Dallas to New Orleans. In Houston, they were regulars at Sunday-afternoon tea dances at the Shamrock Hotel.

Mary Ellen also loved to travel and spent a great deal of time in Santa Fe with her close friend, the late Terry Hershey. She was a regular customer at Santa Fe art galleries and folk-art venues. In Bob’s words, “She loved beautiful things – beautiful clothes, beautiful jewelry, a beautiful yard.”

Survivors include her husband of nearly 71 years, of Conroe; four nieces, Suzanne Locke of Cold Spring, Jolynn Jellison and Sharon Ballew, both of Dallas, and Cindy Cullather of Houston; her sister-in-law, Dorothy Hulsey of Allen; and four cousins, Jerry Holley and Charles Holley, both of Waco, Joe Holley of Houston and Ken Holley of Georgetown.