There’s never a good way to share that a special person has passed and it is even harder to do in writing… but on February 15, 2025 our good friend and SOKY teammate Mary Alice Oliver finally lost her battle with numerous health issues.
Mary Alice, as most knew her, was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky July 19, 1932. She attended 11th Street Elementary School, Bowling Green Junior High and Bowling Green High School where she was a band member and a cheerleader graduating in 1950. In 2015 Mary Alice was inducted into the BGHS Hall of Honor.
After high school she attended Lindsey Wilson Junior College, Scarritt College (with classes at Peabody Teachers College and Vanderbilt University) finishing up with a Rank I at Western Kentucky University.
Mary Alice started her career with work as a Christian Educator. After that she taught sixth grade for 34 years at Richardsville Elementary in the Warren County School System. Not being one to slow down… after retirement she taught English to Japanese adults and children. She worked with 42 different families spanning a period of 22 years.
Twila and I met Mary Alice and her best friend of 50+ years, Kay Dillon, when we all realized we were regulars at the same local restaurant. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were eating together once a week and often playing trivia before the meal… thanks to a patient restaurant staff.
Along the way we learned that Mary Alice was a local history buff and enjoyed writing and she and Kay learned we own SOKY Happenings Magazine. Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what came next… Mary Alice began writing a monthly article for SOKY appropriately titled “Remembering” featuring some interesting part of area history in each issue. She and Kay would spend hours at the Warren County Public Library or WKU’s Kentucky Museum researching for an article. Then Mary Alice would write it and Kay, a retired school librarian and part-time Warren County Public Library staff member, would do the proofing. Needless to say the SOKY team never had to do much editing to their work.
Over the years Mary Alice, with Kay’s help, wrote over 130 articles for SOKY Happenings consisting of over 130,000 words about the history of South Central Kentucky. The SOKY team, in honor of Mary Alice is currently working on a website that will feature all 130+ articles including photos and art for area folks interested in history to access as entertainment and research.
In her spare time, which was actually non-existent, Mary Alice was the Director of Villas at Callaway Gardens Homeowners Association. She was responsible for all the contractors who did maintenance of the grounds and external structures of all the buildings. She kept a golf cart in her garage to tool around the place to keep an eye on things and it always tickled me to hear her on the phone politely chewing some contractor out because they had not lived up to her high standards for her home and those of her neighbors. She kept this position for 16 years and had boxes of information and files to turn over to her replacement when she retired from the job.
One of my favorite stories about Mary Alice… not long after she started writing for SOKY she wanted to visit a grave in a mostly abandoned very old cemetery. She dug up directions and Twila and I drove her and Kay to the location. Now remember, this is… at the time… an 80+ year old lady with a few health issues… and this old cemetery was surrounded with about an eighteen-inch-high wall made from very old loosely stacked stones. While I was trying to find a safe way for Mary Alice and Kay to gain entry to the grounds I looked to my right and Mary Alice was standing on top of one part of the wall. I nearly had a heart attack but that was Mary Alice… she never met a challenge she didn’t want to take on.
Mary Alice and Kay became the best of friends to us. When we traveled we would always entrust our home and our cat to them for care. It was not unusual to come home and find that Chrissy the Cat had acquired a new toy or two as they would come visit her once or twice a day to be sure she didn’t get too lonely.
Mary Alice is survived by a sister, Barbara Ford of Florida and proceeded in death by her parents, T. L. and Louise Hinton Oliver and her older brother, Raymond Oliver.
For a writer, as I have been for over 60 years, it is hard to say “there are no words” but I am truly at a loss for words to adequately describe the friendship, wisdom and fun Mary Alice provided for her best friend, Kay, and to Twila and me over the years. It is a cliché to say but she will be terribly missed but never forgotten. God bless you my friend.
By Tim Hurst
SOKY Publisher & Co-Owner
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