Mary Mack

Mary Shermalee Mack passed away at her home in Bandera, surrounded by family, on July 26, 2018. She was 89 years old. She was born an only child to Martha and Sherman Willard. Her father was a pioneer aviator and rancher in Texas and the Southwest. Shermalee's early years were full of travel and adventures. It was on their ranch in Trinidad, Colorado that Shermalee met Louis Mack, who was in the Navy's V-5 program at nearby Colorado College. He was instantly smitten with her dark-haired beauty and her lively personality. They married in 1947. \r\n\r\nThey and their eight children would eventually settle in San Antonio where they lived in a house that Lou built. Shermalee always put her husband and children first and was the good-humored heart and soul of a lively household. She was an excellent cook who was famous for her big Sunday lunches and an avid reader who instilled in her children a love of books. It was at the kitchen table in this house that Shermalee taught herself to sculpt in the quiet hours when all the kids were off at school. She would go on to become a well-respected Western artist whose bronze sculptures were inspired by her upbringing as a rancher's daughter and her husband's Dakota Sioux ancestry.\r\n\r\nShermalee and Lou moved to Bandera in 1978. In time, they built a business there. Shermalee's warm and sociable nature contributed greatly to its success.\r\n\r\nShe was a member of the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts, the National Society of Arts and Letters, the American Artist Professional League, and Daughters of the American Revolution.\r\n\r\nShermalee will live on in the hearts of her devoted husband of 71 years, her four daughters and three sons and their families. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Ellen Elizabeth.\r\n\r\nThe family wishes to extend our most sincere thanks to her loving caregivers, and for the excellent care provided by the team at Alamo Hospice.