Mary Ellen Dyer

Mary Ellen Dyer, 95, passed away on April 29, 2016. She was born on August 31, 1920, in Houston, Texas, to Dr. Bruno Johannes Speck and Emma Drachenburg Speck. Her father emigrated in 1912 as a young man from Germany through Ellis Island, worked as a barber to pay for his education at Texas Dental College and the South Texas College of Law, and after deciding to pursue dentistry rather than law was for many years a successful dentist and real estate investor in Houston. Her mother emigrated in 1900 as a young child from Ukraine (then a part of Russia) through New Orleans, and for many years was a volunteer at her Lutheran church in Houston and supported her husband’s dental practice. Her mother and father met through a family friend acting as a matchmaker in Beaumont, Texas. Mary Ellen graduated from Sam Houston High School, where she was a classmate of Howard Hughes, and later the University of Texas nursing school in Galveston. She served as a labor and delivery nurse prior to World War II at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston and at St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston. In Galveston, she met her soon-to-be-husband, Randolph “Ran” Dyer, also of Houston, who was working on the oil rigs there at the time. After their marriage in 1942, Ran served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces (and later the U.S. Air Force). His service in World War II included participation in the aerial bombing of Dresden, near where Mary Ellen’s father was born, and he transported General George Patton, and other senior military officers, from England to the European war zone. Throughout the war, Mary Ellen continued to work in Houston as a pediatric nurse. After deployments in San Rafael, California, Bangor, Maine, and Panama City, Florida, Mary Ellen and Ran returned to Houston to raise their family. In 1960, Ran was transferred to New York City with his job as an executive at LCL Corp., which specialized in railroad container shipping logistics. They lived for many years in Greenwich, Connecticut, where Ran was a member of the town council and from which he commuted to work in Manhattan for some 25 years. Mary Ellen during that time was a devoted mother to her three children and developed her interests in interior decorating, which included sewing and design. After Ran’s death, Mary Ellen moved to Marietta in 2002 to be near her family in Georgia, became an active member of First Baptist Church, and enjoyed being a part of her neighborhood activities at The Crossings off Polk Street. Mary Ellen had a love for cooking, sewing, decorating, long walks, cut flowers, house plants, Meissen porcelain, shopping in New York City, the Texas Longhorns, and the Dallas Cowboys. She was a keen follower of politics and an avid piano player. She adored horses and her Welsh Corgi. She always will be remembered by her grandchildren and great grandchildren for her back scratches, cheese cakes, and fascinating stories, like of her family trip by ship to Germany for the summer of 1934 and her and Ran’s travels in South America in the 1960’s. She had a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ. She is preceded in death by her husband, Ran, and her granddaughter, Katherine Emily Egan. She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Norman and Joy Speck of Houston, her daughter and son-in-law, Chris and Mack Harnden of Stilwell, Kansas, her daughter and son-in-law, Lynn and Steve Egan of Marietta, Georgia, and her son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Lisa Dyer of Lawrenceville, Georgia. She also is survived and beloved by her five grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends in Marietta, in Houston and across the country. www.mayeswarddobbins.com 770-428-1511

Mary Ellen Dyer

August 31, 1920 - April 29, 2016