Mollie Ward Hill

1935 - 2025

Mollie Ward Hill
07/01/1935 - 08/22/2025
Mollie Ward Hill, born on the 1st of July 1935, died peacefully at home on Friday, the 22nd of August 2025, surrounded by her loving family.
The only child of Robbie Josephine Davis and Cyril Jerome Edgar of Houston, Mollie attended the St. John's School, Lamar High School, and was a member of the first freshman class to include women at Rice University.
Mollie's beauty, ingenuity, love of fashion and knack for publicity served her well throughout her life. She started out as a house model for Houston designer Joe Frank. She then wrote about fashion for the Houston Post, the Houston Chronicle and Women's Wear Daily. In the 1950s she was a guest star on game shows like To Tell The Truth and the Edgar Bergen Show. And locally, in the 1960s, she pioneered the fashion make-over genre with her popular weekly segment on Dialing for Dollars called "Make Me Over - Please!"
One day, when Mollie was typing a fashion show script, a country western music lyric emerged, and she discovered a new calling as a lyricist. Seventeen songs followed, some written in collaboration with Ted Daffan, and they appeared on the Musicor label with performances by Kay Toliver and Floyd Tillman. Mollie always said that the typewriter should have gotten the credit.
After years of producing shows independently, Mollie was tapped by Saks Fifth Avenue to be Fashion Director at the West Oaks store in Houston, then at its Dallas store. But her favorite retail position was managing the Saks Fifth Avenue Club upon her return to Houston.
As a single fashion executive, Mollie did not expect the turn her life would take in 1995. After a Sunday service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, she attended a coffee and met Dr. Leighton Hill, who a year before had lost his beloved wife of thirty-six years, Dr. Reba Michels Hill. Mollie and Leighton made a spiritual connection. Their connection grew and in 1998 they married. For twenty-seven years they were the love of each other's lives.
Mollie had three children with her first husband, Sam Ward; Sam Ward Jr., Theresa Nobles and Delise Ward (Craig Lidji) all of whom survive her. Andy Nobles, Theresa's husband, predeceased her. In a second marriage, to Argentinian ambassador Ivan Villamil Morel, Mollie lived in Buenos Aires and was hostess of the embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. His two sons, Daniel Villamil (Janet) and Juan Villamil (Mari) and their sons Sebastian and Martin also survive her. She is survived by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Jarrell Nobles, Denise and Luke Babbitt, Andy Nobles III (Emily) and Destiny Colon, Francesca Long and Piper Nobles.
Mollie loved Leighton's children and grandchildren as she did her own; Melanie Hill, Laurie Gutierrez (Alfredo) and sons, Taylor and Hudson; Courtney Fertitta (Jason) and their children, Ella, Vivienne, and Alexander.
Mollie was a member of the Order of St. Luke, a group centered on healing prayer at St. Martin's. She was also a lifelong supporter of her alma mater through the Rice Owls Club. Our family would like to thank Mollie's amazing caregivers: Aisha Wright, Stephanie Diaz and Lashunda Garrett. Their strength and unwavering kindness have been a blessing.
Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o'clock in the afternoon until seven o'clock in the evening on Wednesday, the 3rd of September, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.
A funeral service is to be conducted at two o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday, the 4th of September, at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Road in Houston.
Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in the adjacent Bagby Parish Hall.
The interment service will follow the reception at four o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday, the 4th of September, via an escorted cortege at Woodlawn Cemetery in Houston.
In lieu of customary remembrances, we ask that you consider a donation in her memory to the Parish School, The Hope and Healing Center at Saint Martin's, Lord of the Streets, The Beacon, or The Mission of Yahweh. In the words of Mollie and Leighton's dinner blessing: "Lord, please make us ever mindful of the needs of others and grateful for all we've been given."
Please visit Mrs. Hill's online memorial tribute at GeoHLewis.com where memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared with her family.