Mary Ellen Avery

Mary Ellen (Smith) Avery was born on December 11, 1948, in El Reno, Oklahoma, the first child of Albert Marion Smith and Hazel Mae (Overholser) Smith. Mary died November 11, 2024 in Wichita, Kansas. Her family lived in El Reno, Oklahoma, Claytonia, Nebraska, and Ft. Worth, Texas before moving to Peabody, Kansas in 1958. She graduated from Peabody High School in the Class of 1967 and married Robert Shreves on June 2, 1967. After moving to Wichita, Mary graduated from St. Francis School of Radiology in 1969. She worked at St. Frances Hospital as an x-ray technician and later in several private doctor’s offices. 

In 1975, Mary and Shreves welcomed daughter Maranda Lea into the family and moved to Peabody in 1976. In 1978 they welcomed daughter Gina Noel. Mary continued to work for several clinics in Wichita and at Hillsboro Hospital before retiring in 2014. Mary was a long time Girl Scout leader, a board member for Peabody Main Street and the Sunflower Theater Group and spent several terms on the USD #398 Board of Education and the Marion County Planning Commission. 

Mary is preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Anna Bahre and her brother-in-law, Grant Avery. She is survived by her husband, Shreves, brother, Albert Smith, Jr. and wife Carol, daughter, Maranda Avery and partner, James Convey, daughter Gina Jacobs and husband Andrew, sister-in-law Kim Conquest and husband Rod, brother-in-law Max Bahre, honorary daughter, Jennifer Jacobs and partner Deon Williams, granddaughters, Suzanna Jacobs and Paige Jacobs, and honorary grandsons, Lucas Convey and Donovan Mason. As well as aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established in Mary’s name with the Peabody Senior Center, 106 N. Walnut, Peabody, Kansas 66866.