Mary Evelyn Brister Herman was born September 24, 1933, to George and Jessie Brister at their ranch on Rough Creek in southeast San Saba County. She grew up surrounded by a large loving family of eight brothers and one sister in a home where extra family and friends were often present.
Mary Evelyn began school at the one-room Colony School, often carried there by her older brother, Roy David, when she was too small to walk the miles between home and school. By her fifth grade year, WWII had pulled many of the teachers from rural schools into the war effort forcing country kids to be bussed into town. Mary Evelyn graduated from San Saba High School in 1951 and moved to San Angelo to work as a telephone operator.
Soon after moving to San Angelo, Mary Evelyn met the love of her life, Bill Revelle Herman. They were married March 2, 1952. A few short years later, the family had grown to include three daughters and a son. Those years were busy ones as she cared for her children and home, often by herself because her husband’s job as a Santa Fe Railroad brakeman/conductor kept him away from home for several days out of every week. Mary Evelyn did not hesitate to discipline her children when needed but was unanimously known by her family and friends for her sweet and loving spirit and gift of nurturing which she generously shared with everyone.
Mary Evelyn was always a wonderful cook having started cooking when she was so small that she had to stand in a chair to stir the pots bubbling on the wood burning kitchen stove. The men that worked with her husband looked forward to sharing the goodies Mary Evelyn packed in Bill’s grocery box, and the friends of her children made excuses to stay and eat meals with the family.
As the demands of raising children lessened, Mary Evelyn had time to pursue her love of fancy cake decorating. She became well known to some of the most renowned cake decorating specialists for her beautiful wedding cakes created using sugar, her imagination and a whole lot of talent. Wilton, the company well known for its baking and confectionary equipment, hired her to teach cake decorating at ASU.
Gardening was another activity in which she excelled. There were a wide variety of flowers in dozens of beds around her home and a large vegetable garden that supplied the family with fresh vegetables to eat and share with neighbors. Some flower beds were planted specifically to support the larva of various butterflies she loved. Mary Evelyn grew dozens of test roses for Jackson & Perkins and rated them for being grown in the hot dry winds of West Texas. Although she loved the beauty and fragrance of all the different roses, irises were her true passion. Through the years, she had collected hundreds of different irises of amazing colors and sizes and excitedly looked forward to the one month of every year when her garden of irises burst into vivid and glorious bloom. She loved to share buckets of these blooms with everyone in her world. Mary Evelyn shared her knowledge of growing things with her friends in the San Angelo Garden Club.
Mary Evelyn served on the Board of Directors for the Historic Orient-Santa Fe Depot and received an award for her outstanding efforts toward the restoration and preservation of the Depot in San Angelo. She was also an active member of the Grape Creek United Methodist Church.
Mary Evelyn passed peacefully from this life on March 8, 2022, surrounded by the love of her children. She was preceded in death by her husband, Bill R. Herman; her grandson, J.B. Prater; her sister, Georgia Frances Brister Morris and husband Willard; her brothers: A.J. Brister and wife Virginia, Eugene Brister and wife Phyllis, Rayford Brister and wife Helen, and Roy David Brister and wife Amelia; sisters-in-law, Margaret Brister and Betty Ann Brister; and her parents, George and Jessie Brister.
Mary Evelyn is survived by her children: Cynthia (Cindy) and husband Ken Prater of San Saba, Theresa Lewis of Grape Creek, Texas, Bill Herman, Jr. and wife Alice of Water Valley, Texas, Velda Kay and husband Charles Tiblets of Gordon, Texas; and brothers: Emerson Brister and wife Gladys of Georgetown, Texas, Jackie Brister and wife Charlene of Bend, Texas, Vernon Brister and wife Judy of San Saba, Texas, Dewayne Brister and wife Virginia of Stafford, Kansas; 15 grandchildren, six greatgrandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren, and scores of nieces and nephews.
A Funeral Service was held on Saturday, March 12, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. with Tim Brewer officiating. Interment followed at Colony Cemetery in San Saba, Texas. Blaylock Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.