Mary Cecilia (Ryan) Pease

Mary Cecilia Pease, one of the oldest parishioners and one of the first parish secretaries at St. Laurence Church, passed away Aug. 20 at the age of 101.

Mass will be celebrated on August 24, 2023, at  St. Mary’s Cathedral, with Father Shane D. Wieck, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church, Borger, presiding. Private inurnment took place in Llano Cemetery Garden Mausoleum.

Mary Cecilia Ryan was born on April 12, 1922, in Burtonwood, England, the oldest of three children born to Thomas and Elsie Ryan. Because of her mother’s health, Cecilia constantly took care of her mother and her siblings.

When World War II broke out, all the women in England were required to join the military or work as needed for the war effort. Cecilia quit her job as a cook and worked in a munitions factory, making bombs seven days a week, ten hours a day, while continuing to care for her siblings and her mother.

Her hometown of Burtonwood housed the largest Air Force contingent in England, and as a young woman, she would attend the mixers for the soldiers. It was there that she met her future husband, Raymond Pease. The couple were united in marriage in 1948.

Shortly after her arrival in the Texas Panhandle, Mrs. Pease received an Associate in Applied Science degree from Amarillo College in Data Processing. She also received a Bachelors in Business Administration from West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University).

According to her friends and family, Mrs. Pease was one of St. Laurence Church's first secretaries. She was devoted to the Catholic Church and to her dear friends. Mrs. Pease met Father (later Monsignor) Raymond Crosier shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, and the two became lifelong friends, along with his brother Joseph.

Her friends added that Mrs. Pease was a very independent woman who taught herself how to drive. She volunteered at St. Anthony’s Hospice with Incarnate Word Sister Olivia Prendergast. Her neighbors say Mrs. Pease helped the neighborhood children by watching them after school, feeding them, and helping them with their homework.

Mrs. Pease was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Raymond Pease.

Survivors include a sister, Elsie Dole; two nephews, Phillip and Stephen; a niece, Lauren, all of England; and her devoted friends, Joseph Crosier and Evelyn Johnson.