Mary Eastland

Mary Alice Eastland left this Earth on January 4, 2025. A funeral service will take place at 1:30 PM, Monday, January 13, 2025, at Marshall and Marshall Funeral Directors in Hillsboro, with a burial to follow at Ridge Park Cemetery, Hillsboro.

Mary Alice was born in Marks, Mississippi on December 17, 1933, to Nelle and Frank Hammond. She graduated from Marks High School in 1951 and attended Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi before transferring to Baylor University in Waco, Texas where she finished her degree in Religious Education in only 3 years. After working in the Arlington area for several years she returned to Waco to complete her Master's Degree in Education. Her first teaching position was with the La Vega ISD as an elementary teacher in what was then Wheeler Elementary.

Her marriage to Donald Eastland carried her to Hillsboro where she took a leave of absence from teaching to raise her children; Susan, Donald Jr, Sarah, and Daniel. During this time, she remained active in school activities and became the first woman elected to the Hillsboro ISD school board, serving as secretary for 4 years. As her children got older, Mary Alice returned to teaching at Hill College in the Developmental Department where she taught English, Reading, Study Skills, and ESL Classes until she retired in the Summer of 2000. In 1998 she received the NISOD Excellence Award from the University of Texas.

Never far from teaching, Mary Alice spent her later years as a substitute teacher at Whitney High School where her grandson was attending. She also substituted for Aquilla ISD and Itasca ISD.

Her joy was spending time with her children and grandchildren along with her interests in cooking, reading, antiques, chocolate, travel, keeping up with current events, collecting teapots and flow blue china. She loved Southern literature and had an extensive collection of Faulkner's works. One of her favorite pictures shows her in Oxford Mississippi sitting next to a statue of Faulkner.

She was active in many Hillsboro clubs and organizations such as Sesame, the Hillsboro Heritage League, and Bond's Alley. She supported the Hillsboro and Whitney Libraries, and taught Sunday school at The Hillsboro Methodist Church. In 1997, shortly before her retirement, she built a house next door to her sister, Bettye Peterson, in Whitney were they were happy to spend their days together, traveling when they could.

In 2018 she moved to the Stilwell Retirement Community in Waco, where she became active in their library and enjoyed having guests and visiting with her friends; many of whom were also retired educators. She remained there until her passing.

Mary Alice is preceded in death by her sister, Bettye Sue Peterson and her son Donald Eastland Jr. She is survived by her daughter Susan Nelle Polansky and her husband Adam and daughter Nelle, her daughter Sarah Alice Eastland and David Hooker, her son Daniel Eastland, grandson Christopher Eastland and his wife Wendy Blackburn Eastland.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to the Hillsboro City Library, the Stilwell Retirement Residence in Waco, Texas, or King Memorial Methodist Church in Whitney, Texas.