Mary Louise DeThample

Mary Louise (Roets) DeThample, 93, passed away Monday, April 3, 2023.Mary Lou was born at home on January 27, 1930, in Wichita, KS. The third child of Margaret Gleeson Roets and Joseph Roets, Mary Lou had four brothers, Gene, Joseph, Bill, and Richard and three sisters, Lois, Geraldine, and Margie. She had a happy childhood tending to farm animals at their home near Lincoln and Oliver in Wichita, KS. A lovely child, at 5 years of age her father stood her on the kitchen table and said, “I’m going to enter her into a beauty contest at the Crown Uptown.” Mary Lou attended Blessed Sacrament Church and School, completing the 8th grade.At 19 she met her one true love, Edward William DeThample, at a midnight picnic. After four months of dating, they were married at All Saints Catholic Church on January 4, 1949, on her parent’s wedding anniversary. In their first eleven years of marriage Lou & Ed were blessed with 5 children, Johnny, Sherry, Rodney, Terry, and David. Mary Lou was a devoted wife, mother, and homemaker. Through the years, they lived in Kansas, California, and Texas with their sons settling and marrying in Texas and their daughter staying in Wichita. Mary Lou has always loved music and she & Ed used to go dancing almost every Saturday evening. After a warm-up dance to Lawrence Welk on T.V. they’d be off to the Moose Club to dance the night away. After forty years of marriage, Ed died in 1989, a devastating loss for her. After his passing Mary Lou worked as manager of a senior apartment community and later at the Tuesday Morning store forming many wonderful friendships. When she retired, she would often spend her summers in Texas with her sons or her sister, Margie. While at her sister’s, they would frequently attend the senior music programs where she would have fun singing and sometimes would dance holding Ed’s picture to her heart. Mary Lou could be ornery and was very spontaneous. She loved to laugh and cut up. As she grew older and her memory faded along with her filter, her wit stayed sharp so you never knew what she might say. Her family and friends will greatly miss the laughs and the red faces they got from that.Mary Lou is preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Gene, Joseph, Bill and Dick Roets; and sisters, Lois Corey and Geraldine Dalton; her husband, Edward DeThample; eldest son, Johnny DeThample; and granddaughter, Jenny DeThample. Survivors include her beloved sister, Margie (Floyd) Hand; daughter, Sherry (Tony) Catanese of Wichita, KS; sons, Rod (Terry) DeThample, Terry (Patti) DeThample, both of Ft. Worth, TX, and David (Lynda)DeThample of Neosho, MO; sisters-in-law, Clara Townsley, Adele Meyer of Wichita and Charlotte Roets and Sue Roets of Salina, KS; and her 17 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews whom she loved. A Rosary will be held on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. and a Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. both at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. Memorials can be made to, Blessed Sacrament Catholic School, 125 N. Quentin, Wichita, KS 67208.Services in care of Downing & Lahey East Mortuary.

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