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Obituary for Mary M. Tolley
Mary Meredith Long Tolley passed away on October 14, 2020 Mary was born in 1930 in Charlotte, NC to James Austin Long and Gladys Meredith Long. After the death of Mary’s father, the family moved to Erwin, TN where Mary grew up and attended Unicoi County High School in Erwin and East Tennessee State College in Johnson City, TN. While attending ETSC, Mary met and married Gene Harold Tolley in 1949 and moved to Nashville, TN. In 1959, with Gene’s promotion, the family relocated to Jackson, MS.
The Tolley family were long time members of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Jackson. Besides rearing four children, Mary enjoyed working with Community Children’s Theater and Little Theater, arranging flowers, playing the piano, singing, dancing, cooking, playing bridge with Le Midi and other bridge clubs, camping on Flag Island on the Pearl River and boating on Old Hickory Lake, Barnett Reservoir and Mississippi Gulf Coast where she and Gene never met a stranger. Mary loved to swim and provided swim lessons to hundreds of children at the Canton Avenue neighborhood swimming pool in Jackson.
Mary is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Gene, and her sister, Amanda Frazier (Ben). Surviving Mary are her children: Marilyn Rose (Phil), Ridgeland, MS; Preston Tolley (Valerie), Madison, MS; Liz Michaels (Ron), Madison, MS and Sara Tolley, Madison, MS; her grandchildren: Christina Rose (Andrew Egerton), Ridgeland, MS, Brian Rose, San Diego, CA, Tolley Yoste, Ridgeland, MS and Banks Tolley, Madison, MS; and her brother, James A. Long (Pat) of Erwin, TN.
The family would like to thank everyone for the compassion, prayers, good thoughts and love shown after Mary’s fall last year. Due to social distancing concerns and the pandemic, a memorial service for Mary will be held at a later date.