Mary Evelyn Hooper Crocker passed away Jan. 25, 2017, 7:42 a.m., at St. David’s North Hospital, Austin, TX after a prolonged illness. She died from congestive heart failure. Mary was born in Tellico Plains, Tennessee on March 30, 1930.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Lee and Edith Whitaker Hooper; siblings, Wilma Langley, Betty Johnson, Walter and Ralph Hooper, all of Texas.

After attending school in Benavides, Three Rivers, and Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, she married Jesse Thornton Crocker, Sr. in 1948. They made their home in Kingsville, TX where they were devout members of First Assembly of God. Mary worked with State Farm Insurance and Century 21 Real Estate in Kingsville. She retired in 1999 and became interested in genealogy. Traveling the southeast many years researching the Hooper family, she published a genealogy book, A Glimpse Into the Past. In 2004 they moved to Bastrop, where Jesse and Mary lived until her death.

She is survived by her husband, Jesse Thornton Crocker, Jr.; daughters,  Brenda Dale Crocker and Mary Ann Crocker; sons, Jesse Thornton Crocker, III and Mark David and Lori Bergstrom Crocker; sister, Imogene Needham; and brother, Garrard Hooper, of Texas.

Mary was grandmother of Chrissy Marie Weigand, Anthony, Christopher, Jesse, Joseph, and John Crocker, of Kansas City, Michael Taylor, of Olathe, KS, Brandon Taylor, of Buda, TX and Aaron Taylor, of Elgin, TX. She was also a great-grandmother of many great-grandchildren and had many nieces and nephews.

Mary will be greatly missed and loved. She was truly the matriarch of the family.