Mary Ann Pittard

Obituary

Mary Ann Pittard, of San Antonio, Texas, died in her home on November 4, 2025 of metastatic breast cancer. She was 78 years old.

Mary was born on September 21, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, to Hugh and Lena Thomas. She spent her childhood in Lubbock and Brownfield, Texas, with her younger siblings Martha and Paul. As a child, she cherished trips to her grandparents’ home in Prescott, Arizona, where the natural beauty contrasted starkly with the barren landscape of West Texas. She graduated from Brownfield High School in 1965.

Mary attended Abilene Christian College beginning in 1965. It was there where she met Joe Tom Pittard; they married in 1969 and she graduated with a degree in art education later that year. Mary and Joe Tom spent their first married years in Galveston, where Mary taught art in public schools while Joe Tom attended medical school. In 1971, they moved to San Antonio, where they would share life together until Joe Tom’s death in 2020.

In San Antonio, Mary was a homemaker, raising her children Lané (b. 1974) and John (b. 1977). For many years she also managed the business operations of Joe Tom’s private psychiatry practice. She found daily joy in neighborhood walks, gardening, preparing wholesome meals (with interest in natural foods long before this was en vogue), talking with friends, reading widely, and traveling with family. Her artistic skills found outlet in handmade cards, painting, interior design, and supporting her family’s creative projects, as well as through playing piano and singing. Family summers while her kids were in school included epic road trips of 3-4 weeks of exploring different regions of the U.S. and Canada. During their empty nest years, travel continued to be an important part of Mary and Joe Tom’s life together, whether they were visiting their daughter in California, their son and his family on the East coast, or exploring a destination like Prince Edward Island or coastal Oregon whose beauty and history had touched them. Mary cherished her family and often welcomed her parents, in-laws, grandchildren, siblings and their spouses, and nieces to visit and enjoy her warm hospitality and the sanctuary of her beautiful home.

Mary’s Christian faith was central to her identity. She deeply desired to serve and please Jesus, and her example of quiet yet serious faith served as a motivating inspiration for several of her friends. Mary was active in the community of Oak Hills Church of Christ (later Oak Hills Church) for over five decades. For nearly twenty years in the 70s and 80s she taught third grade Sunday school. Putting her artistic skills to work, she painted the walls of the third-grade classroom with large Biblical maps, followed by other murals in the hall and stairwell of the church’s Sunday school wing. Mary was also a longtime member of an Oak Hills life group and an active participant in various adult Bible classes, especially the “Women of the Word” group. She was known for her thorough preparation and thoughtful questions when it was her turn to teach. In her final years, Mary was, by her own reckoning, the longest-standing member of the Oak Hills congregation. In addition to her involvement at Oak Hills, Mary was for many years a faithful member of a “Moms In Touch” group that met weekly to pray for their school-age children. She also volunteered by mentoring at-risk students in nearby elementary schools.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents Hugh and Lena Thomas and by her husband Joe Tom Pittard. She is survived by her daughter Lané Pittard of San Antonio; her son John Pittard, daughter-in-law Alicia Pittard, and grandchildren Thomas, Camille, and Samantha, of Hamden, Connecticut; her sister and brother-in-law Martha and John Smallwood of Abilene, Texas; her brother and sister-in-law Paul and Vicki Thomas of McAlester, Oklahoma; her brother-in-law David Pittard of Austin, Texas; and her nieces Sarah Smallwood, Johanna Pershin, Betsy Compton, and Becky Auld. She was deeply cherished, and her quiet love and peaceful spirit will be greatly missed.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 24th in the South Room of Oak Hills Church (19595 IH 10 W, San Antonio, TX).

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