Mary Jane Sloan

Mary Jane Sloan died peacefully at BSA Hospice in Amarillo, Texas on October 22, 2018.

Services will be private. Arrangements are by Schooler Funeral Home.

She was born Mary Jane Gerhards to John Frank Gerhards and Leona McNulty Gerhards on November 22, 1938 in Guthrie, Oklahoma. An avid scholar, Mary Jane was the valedictorian of her high school class, and took that passion for learning to her studies at Oklahoma State University, where she graduated with honors. It was also during her college years that Mary Jane met the love of her life, Bob R Sloan, her husband of 58 years.

An education major, Mary Jane taught at schools in Las Cruces, NM and Pensacola, FL before moving to Amarillo in 1970. In Amarillo she spent the bulk of her teaching career at St. Joseph’s Elementary School where she taught reading resource and enrichment. During the summers, Mary Jane and Bob Sloan managed Amarillo swimming pools and taught tens of thousands of children how to swim. “I’ve never seen you in clothes before!” was a common greeting to them when their students ran into them socially.

Throughout her life Mary Jane was a devout Catholic and a proud member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority. She was a local philanthropist and volunteer, serving on the Board of the American Red Cross and donating to countless local and national charities. In 1996 Bob and Mary Jane were in a life-altering head-on car accident, but they recovered enough to travel the world in the decades that followed.

Mary Jane is survived by her dear and loving husband Bob; her daughter Diane Sloan Bunting (husband Curtis) and her son Stan J Sloan (husband Jan); her grandchildren Sloan Marie Bunting and Graham Henderson Bunting.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Second Chance House.