Mary Jane (Cox) Dickens

Mary Jane (Cox) Dickens, died peacefully in her home in Albuquerque on September 30, 2017. Her family was there with love and support during her passing. She was 93 years old.

Mary Jane was born on April 13, 1924 in Lexington, KY, the youngest child of Lloyd and Zehra Cox. She had two older brothers, Owen and Bill. The boys nicknamed her “Skeeter” and needless to say, she was not too fond of that name! Their mother died when Mary Jane was quite young and she went to live with her maternal grandparents, O.W. and Jessie Lee Baugh, whom she called Father and Meme. She attended Lexington schools, graduating from high school in 1942. She went to the University of Kentucky, studying many different subjects and called herself “a jack of all trades and master of none,” but cut her college career short when she married the love of her life, John W. “Pete” Dickens, on February 12th, 1944.

Mary Jane and Pete had known each other since she was a baby. He often said how he remembered the day that a call came to their home in Tennessee to announce that Zehra’s baby was a little girl! Little did he dream that baby girl would grow up to become his wife and that they would be married for more than 60 years! Mary Jane had actually told her family when she was 14 years old that she was in love with Pete and was going to marry him someday!

Pete served in the U.S. Air Force for more than 30 years, so he and Mary Jane raised their four children all over the U.S. (Albuquerque, Tampa, Dayton, Virginia) and Germany. They had one daughter, Gwen, and three sons, John, Owen and Barry. Albuquerque was the duty station they liked the best (Mary Jane said they “thought we’d died and gone to heaven!”), so they built a home here in 1954 to which they returned after retirement in 1973.

Mary Jane and Pete were active in church throughout their lives no matter where they lived, teaching Sunday school, working with youth groups, ushering, working on committees. They spent many of their retirement years traveling in their RV around the country to visit family and sightsee, plus spending winters in Arizona.

Mary Jane loved life, in general, people, dogs and books, in particular. She was an avid reader, both fiction and non-fiction. Reading took up much of her time after her Pete died in 2004; she had quite a selection of books in her apartment, many of them about dogs! After moving to La Vida Llena, where she lived for the past nine years, she worked in the library because she loved books so much. When referring to La Vida Llena, she often said “I have never regretted for a moment that I moved here” and “Life can be real rich here”. What meant the most to her was being in a community again and having close friends.

She is survived by her brother, Bill Cox, and her children, Gwen Zollars (Chuck), John Dickens (Jeanne Banks), Owen Dickens (Jenny) and Barry Dickens (Susan), ten grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren with one more on the way. Mary Jane leaves an amazing legacy with her family.

A memorial service will be held for Mary Jane on Saturday, October 28, 2017 at 2:00pm at La Vida Llena, 10501 Lagrima De Oro NE. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.