Mae Louise Brock

Mae Louise Brock, 81, of Mountain Home, died Aug. 4, 2007, with her daughter and son-in-law by her bedside, after complications from surgery.

A celebration of her life will be held at the Mountain Home Senior Center at Noon on Thursday, Aug. 9. Cremation was under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel.

Mae was born on Jan. 16, 1926, in Wiggins, Miss., to Leonard and Loa Mae (Hickman) Hughes.

Mae traveled to Alaska and England in the early fifties with her husband, Donald F. Button, who was in the U.S. Air Force. They later divorced.

She spent the sixties and seventies in southern California where her second husband, Melvin M. Brock, retired from the U.S. Air Force.

A few years after he passed away, she moved to Henderson, Nev., with her daughter, Marilyn, to be near her daughter, Donna, and her husband, Tony, who was stationed at Nellis AFB.

Her daughter Marilyn was killed in an auto accident in 1997 at the age of 34, while stationed in Puerto Rico with the Navy.

Mae moved to Mountain Home in 1999, which is when she started going by her first name, Mae, after always being known by Louise until then.

Mae was a very independent, self-sufficient woman, her family said. While she was living alone in Las Vegas, she would cut her own lawn in the 110-degree heat at the age of 70. When arthritis and osteoporosis made it impossible for her to continue gardening, she moved to Mountain Home where Donna and Tony had retired. "She often said moving to Mountain Home saved her life because she became active in so many groups and activities."

Mae used to volunteer at the Visitors Center and with the Hospital Auxiliary. At her doctor's suggestion, she took up line dancing at the Senior Center twice a week and made many good friends, her family said. "With these friends the list of activities just kept growing. She played cards two or three times a week, had lunch with 'the girls' every Thursday, played Bingo and Bunko at the Senior Center, attended game nights and fund-raisers, and made trips to Jackpot a few times a year.

"Now in her eighties, she was still insisted on doing things for herself, including installing a new motion sensor light for her garage, and frequently making repairs to the sprinklers for the town house association because of her love for gardening. Her health never stopped her from doing anything, but her osteo did limit some chores which were more physically demanding," her family said.

Mae Louise is survived by: her daughter, Donna, and her husband, Tony Hart, of Mountain Home; one granddaughter and one great-granddaughter.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin Brock, her daughter, Marilyn, and one brother.