Photo courtesy of Monty Ayers.
Mary Alice Ayers, long-time resident of Stevens Park Estates, passed away in January at age 75.
Ayers was a lifelong educator, having earned secondary teaching certifications in math, Spanish, social studies, and art from the Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts.
She began her career as a teacher overseas in Department of Defense Dependents Schools to children of U.S. military personnel. Her first assignment was at A.T. Mahan High School in Iceland, followed by Berlin and Mannheim, Germany. After her DoDDS career, she found ways to continue to teach by assisting military spouses who were new to overseas living on how to adapt to the local grocery stores and trains.
During her time in Germany, she met and married Charles “Monty” Ayers when he was a young Army officer. They were married for over 46 years.
One of Monty’s fondest memories with his wife was when they traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for their honeymoon where among the distilleries the primary street food available was baked potatoes.
“So she ate a lot of baked potatoes, together, but I walked her all over from one monument to the next until she had blisters on her feet, and she just said, ‘No more.’ So we got back to London, going home at six in the morning, and she was hungry,” he said.
After searching, the couple finally found a place that was open where Ayers bought a bread roll that was so hard she could not break it.
“So she carried that with her, trying to figure out what she was going to do. And we walked over to Trafalgar Square, which is right in the heart of London, and she got so mad that she threw the roll down the floor, on the ground, stomped it well,” Monty said. “The next thing you know, thousands of pigeons descended on her, and she had pigeons all over because they were there to get the bread, and she was mad, but especially at me, because I laughed.”
The couple lived abroad together for approximately 10 years until Monty’s retirement, with their final years spent in Holland in the Netherlands.
They moved into their Mayflower Drive home in 1992, which was featured on the Heritage Oak Cliff 2019 Fall Home Tour.
Around 2000, after working with her brother for some time, Ayers discovered her passion for interior design. She attended design school at El Centro College for three years and passed her certification test on her first try, a rare accomplishment Monty noted.
She went on to work as an interior designer at the Dallas Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center until 2016, then freelanced design services until the beginning of 2025.
In the summer of 2025, Ayers was diagnosed with cancer.
“We didn’t detect that she was feeling that she was sick. She was the kind of person that just kept going. The Energizer Bunny and never complained,” Monty said.
She began chemotherapy, but by December the cancer spread. She passed away on Jan. 5.
Ayers is survived by her husband, Monty; brother Jim Olvera; sister Judy Olvera; sister-in-law Vicki Olvera; brother-in-law Craig Ayers; stepson Russell Ayers; and nieces Katherine Olvera and Caroline Olvera.
“Mary Alice was truly one of the kindest, most caring individuals, always willing to lend a hand,” her obituary reads.
