Mary Carolyn Engel

Mary Carolyn Swanson Engel, age 94, most recently of Overland Park, KS, passed away on October 26, 2025. She was born in 1931, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Harold Theodore Swanson, and Helen May Dillow Swanson and grew up in Leawood, KS. She attended Hale Cook and Corinth Rural elementary schools, Shawnee Mission (Rural) High School and the University of Kansas where she was a member of her beloved Pi Beta Phi. She was also an active member of the Mu Phi Epsilon music sorority and the Phi Sigma Chi Pep Squad at KU. She was an accomplished pianist and started playing piano at age 4 out of the Lutheran Hymnal. She was a trained concert pianist and studied with private tutors and later at the Conservatory of Music. She was a wife, homemaker, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, but was drawn into other musical activities due to her musical talents.

Mary was called upon to teach in the music department at The Barstow School where she taught for 18 years, instructing from grades first through eighth grade, as well as the high school Glee Club, starting the pep band, directing major musicals and teaching music history. She served on the National Independent School Committees and was secretary of ISACS, Independent Schools Association of the Central States.

After retirement, she was asked to direct the handbell choir at Village Church. She became active in the National Association of English Handbell Ringers. She toured England and rang handbells in Coventry, England, where the bells are cast, as well as attending a symposium at Exeter University. She also wrote and arranged handbell music where she was published. Her best seller was "Jazzy Jinglin Bells." She particularly enjoyed playing 4 hands piano and her favorite partners were Vivian Lytton, Pat Jones, and in recent years, Marie Bell Watson O'Hara.

Mary was an active member of her beloved Pi Beta Phi for 77 years, serving as President of the Kansas City, KS Alumnae Club, as well as serving as the National Music Chairman for 20 years, directing musical activities at conventions and co-publishing a National Song Book. While in college, she helped write the very first Rock Chalk Review.

She was also a member of the Kansas City, KS Junior League. After her husband retired, they moved to the Lake of Ozarks where she was organist and music director at The Lake Presbyterian Church. Later they moved to Rockport, TX where she was the organist for the First Presbyterian Church of Rockport. After her love of husband, family, and music, Mary loved golf. She played regularly at Blue Hills Country Club where she served as president of the women's group as well as President of the Country Club District Golf Association, and Secretary of the Missouri Women's Golf Association. She was USGA approved as a golf course slope rater.

She was preceded in death by both her parents, and her husband Dale Lee Engel in 2011, and son-in-law Thomas V. Poppe. She is survived by her son, Stephen L. Engel and her daughter, Carol Engel Poppe, five grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren.

A Memorial Service will be held at 11:00AM Thursday, November 6, 2025, at Ward Parkway Presbyterian Church, 7406 Ward Parkway Kansas City, MO 64114.

In lieu of flower, memorial contributions can be made to either The Barstow School; Mary Engel Legacy Fund 11511 State Line Road Kansas City, MO 64114 Donate Or Children's Mercy Hospital c/o The Philanthropy Department; In Memory of Mary Engel 2401 Gilham Road Kansas City, MO. 64108 Donate