Mary Leslie Newton Carter

Family-Placed Obituary



Mary Leslie Newton Carter Mary Leslie Newton Carter, age 93, passed away in Austin on Thursday, March 24, 2005. She was born on July 7, 1911, to Ethel White Newton and Lesser Chauncey Newton, at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas. She was delivered by Dr. White and was the first caesarean section in the State of Texas where both the mother and child survived. She was a member of the DAR and direct descendent of Mathew Newton who emigrated from England to America in 1718. The Newton family later moved to Texas in 1850 and settled in the Milano and Rockdale area. She graduated from Baylor University and taught school in Davilla, Port Lavaca, and Sugarland, Texas for many years. On March 23, 1931, she married Elvine H. Pruett in Davilla, Texas. In 1944, during World War II, she moved to Rivers, Arizona to teach school at the Japanese Relocation Center on the Gila Bend Indian Reservation. She married Albert W. Carter at Rivers on January 26, 1945. At the end of WW II, they moved back to Temple, Texas where her husband was the finance officer at McCloskey Army Hospital for a number of years. They later lived in Margate, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; and the Portuguese Azores before returning to Temple in 1963, where they established the A&M Bridge Studio. Mary Leslie was a Life Master in the American Contract Bridge League and played contract bridge in America and Europe against some of the word's best contract bridge players. In 1977, they retired to Mesa, Arizona where they lived until the death of her husband in December 1998. She returned to Austin at that time and was a resident of the Renaissance Retirement Center. Most recently, she was a resident at Heartland Healthcare Center. She is survived by her son, James L. Carter and daughter-in-law, Glenda M. Carter and her granddaughter Tamerlane Carter, all of Austin. Two step-grandsons, their families, and numerous cousins also survive her. The family wishes to express their appreciation to Dr. Laura Guerrero of North Austin Medical Center and the nurses and staff at Heartland Healthcare and Vistacare Family Hospice for their care and compassion during the past months. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Monday, March 28, 2005, in the Colonial Chapel of Cook-Walden Funeral Home.