Mary Couick Obituary

Mary Love Couick

July 5, 1932 - June 12, 2025

York, South Carolina - Mrs. Mary Love Couick, 92, passed away on June 12th, at her home surrounded by family.

A service will be held on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, at Redeeming Grace Presbyterian Church, 4800 Charlotte Highway, Lake Wylie, SC 29710 at 11 a.m. with the Reverend Henry Beaulieu officiating. Visitation with the family will precede the service and begin at 10 a.m. at the church. Interment will follow the service at Unity Associate Reform Presbyterian Church, 3495 Unity Church Road, Lancaster, SC 29720 with the Rev. Devin Kahan officiating.

Born on July 5, 1932, in Spartanburg County, Mary was the daughter of the late John Grady and the late Maude Campbell Love of York, South Carolina. She was preceded in death by her husband of nearly 70 years, Aubrey Ney Couick. She was also preceded in death by her sister, Betty Love Hawley; her brothers John Love, Hugh (Bill) Love and Paul Love; and her grandson, Campbell Ney Couick.

She is survived by her sons, Michael (Mary) Couick of Columbia, S.C., and Stephen (Leslie) Couick of Rock Hill, S.C.; three grandchildren, Marchant (Matthew) Dillard of Charlotte, N.C., Daniel Couick of Rock Hill, S.C., and Alex Couick of Columbia, S.C.; and two great-grandsons, Campbell Dillard and Henry Dillard.

Mary's life was a quilt. She spent a lifetime stitching in patches of her experiences and the people she had met and loved. She would pull out that quilt to inspire her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the legion of students that she taught through the years. As each quilt patch was described by her, the name to which she referred to herself often changed. When she and her family described her early life, she was always "sister" - being the first girl born into the family. As she got older, went off to high school and then college at Winthrop University, her friends knew her as "Mary Evelyn." To her husband, she was always "Mary." To her boys, she was "Mom." To her grandchildren, she altered between two names: "Muvver" to Marchant, and "Mom" to Coleman and Alex.

As was often the case in Upstate South Carolina in the 1930's, her family were farmers. Her paternal grandfather's farm in Bullock Creek in western York County was the scene of many adventures, including when she fell out of the hay loft at age 4 and unexpectedly took a ride on a pig. Within several years her father and mother moved the family to the Bethel community) and established a farm growing peaches and Hereford cows. It was here that her love for cooking began. While the rest of the family picked and sold peaches to passersby on Highway 49, Mary stayed back in the kitchen cooking up dinner (including great biscuits) for the family and the peach workers. While unimaginably hard work for a 12-year-old today, she did it on a wood stove. Electricity came later.

Mary met Ney after graduating from Winthrop in home economics and moved to Lancaster County to teach. At a makeshift skating arena, created in the school's gymnasium by roping off the corners, Ney insisted that Mary roller-skate with him. His persistence paid off and she surrendered, and they became partners for the next 70 years.

Neither were strangers to hard work. Mary accompanied Ney to El Paso, Texas, as he served in the U.S. Army, and she continued her five-decade stint as a teacher. As they returned home, she carried their yet-to-be-born first son, Mike, who was quickly followed by their second son, Steve.

During these early years of motherhood, Mary proved that she was built to be a boy's mom. From removing house paint that Mike and Steve coated themselves with to look like Indians, to the black eye she sported after she agreed to wrestle a 4-year-old Steve in the floor. Throughout their school years, she never missed a PTA meeting, athletic event or band concert.

She was among the last of the generation that could recall the joy and hard work associated with growing up on an early 20th century farm. Life on that farm during the Great Depression and World War Two taught her not to waste anything. Even up until her late eighties, summer meant canning and freezing fruit and vegetables. For her boys, she and Ney did not want them to experience the hardships and ration cards they had endured, but they wanted them to know what the growing up on a farm experience was like. In 1968, she and Ney settled onto the farm where she would live the rest of her life. They frequently said that what the building plan showed to be a 2x4, her father-in-law demanded that it be a 2x6. This home became a focal point not only for her immediate family but also for extended family and friends who would visit, fish, or just enjoy the grounds that they kept in park-like condition. Ney was responsible for the grass, and Mary fiercely protected her flowers from his instinct to mow everything.

Mom loved music. In the early days there was always a record player spinning (33 LPs). Her love of music spanned many styles, from Johnny Cash singing "Ring of Fire," to Mahalia Jackson wailing out a gospel blues tune, to Mario Lanza serenading her with "Santa Lucia." Later in life, when her grandson Campbell became ill with leukemia and was a patient at St. Jude's Research Hospital, Mary moved to Memphis to help care for Marchant. It was in Memphis that she taught Campbell the words to Hank Williams' hit, "Hey Good Lookin'." He always sang with gusto and a smile.

As her grandchildren began to arrive, she hosted birthday parties, pumpkin carvings and tadpole-catching at Ney's beloved Pondominium (his renovated tractor shed by their fishing pond). With her grandchildren, she continued to prove that she was born to be a teacher. Nighttime meant that she was reading a story to them or, more likely, Marchant and Alex mimicked her by teaching her a lesson and demanding that she take a test to see how much she learned. With Daniel, she taught art lessons on an old breakfast room table in the basement. Mary was fortunate that her great-grandson, Campbell, moved from Austin, Texas, to Charlotte in July 2023. Her latest great-grandson, Henry, arrived in January 2025. During a visit from them just before Easter, Mary held Henry while watching Campbell dash around the house, exploring everything. She smiled, and no doubt she was tempted to get on the floor and wrestle with him.

Mary was a member of Redeeming Grace Presbyterian Church.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105, Epworth Children's Home (2900 Millwood Avenue, Columbia, SC 29205), or Redeeming Grace Presbyterian Church (4800 Charlotte Highway, Lake Wylie, SC 29710). The family wishes to express their deep gratitude to Mary's caregivers: Shereeta Hall, Kurtisa Love. Deborah Ward, Corine Smalls, Landra Dunham, Anitra Wylie, Frances Hart, Juanela (Nell) Adams.

Online condolences may be made at www.mlfordsons.com.

M. L. Ford & Sons Funeral Home, Clover, SC is serving the Couick family.