Mary Ellen (Hartman) Pyle passed from this world to Jesus Christ's side in heaven October 2, 2021, at 4:00 p.m.  Mary Ellen was born January 31, 1932, in Grantsboro, North Carolina but moved to Richmond, Virginia while a young baby and lived there until she was twelve years of age when she moved back to Grantsboro, North Carolina, graduating from Alliance High School.  She was working for REA in Grantsboro, North Carolina when she met Ben Pyle, a marine stationed at Cherry Point, North Carolina.  Mary Ellen married Ben March 23, 1951, after only knowing each other for about seven weeks.  Mary lived the role of wife and help mate for over seventy years.

During those earlier years she gave birth to two sons, Malrey and Dwight. Both children she loved dearly.  Mary Ellen worked for Phillips Petroleum Company for twenty-nine years before retiring to the family farm where she lived with her husband for more than twenty-five years.  It didn't take much work handling livestock before she realized that handling those brutes was for real cowboys and not for little girls.  She soon gave up ranch work and left that for the men.

Mary Ellen was civic- and community-minded.  Church services utilized her secretarial skills, some right here in Apple Springs and without a whimper from her.  She worked on the basis that it was God's work that needed to be handled professionally.  She knew how to do it correctly.  The community lost a caring and hard worker.  She loved doing things for people who appreciated things that came from skillful hands and mind.  She made good with community cookbooks for Mount Zion Cemetery and other sources of cookbooks like the Apple Springs Old Timers fundraiser.  Ellen was very instrumental in the development and publishing of the book "Trinity County, a Legend of Its Own", which was sold out before publishing.  She was kind and courteous throughout her life and marriage.

Mrs. Pyle is survived by her loving husband of almost seventy-one years, Benjamin Malrey Pyle of Helmic, TX; son, Malrey Nathan Pyle and wife, Jan of Helmic, TX; son, Dwight Dana Pyle and wife, Sharon of Fountain Creek, TX; granddaughter, Madison Breanne Pyle of Baytown, TX; brother-in-law D.L. Pyle of Groveton; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Kent and Anzo (Ann) Pyle Richardson; and a host of other relatives and friends.  Mary Ellen is preceded in death by her father, David William Hartman, mother, Fairy A. Harper.

Visitation will be held Wednesday, October 6, 2021, beginning at 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Groveton Funeral Home. Funeral services will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 7, 2021, at Groveton Funeral Home in Groveton, Texas with Bro. Michael Due officiating.
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