Sally Stovall

Sally Dora Stovall, age 84, of Mesquite, TX, passed away Wednesday, August 5, 2020. She was born November 21, 1935 in Dallas, TX to David Amos Gregson and Mary Lou Ella Eastham Gregson.

On Wednesday, August 5, 2020, Sally Dora Gregson Stovall, a loving sister and mother of five children, passed away peacefully just after waking up, getting fully dressed, brushing her teeth for the day and visiting with a new friend and roommate waiting for breakfast. She was born in 1935, the same year the Social Security Act was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was educated and raised as a devout catholic in Dallas, Texas. In addition, it is there that she learned the importance of her purpose for living, discipline, structure, obedience, respect, and of course reading, writing, and arithmetic, as this was her foundation for life. Sally ensured that her five children were also educated worldly and spiritually within the Catholic faith through her loving care, direction and guidance.

Through the years, she devoted much of her time to love, care, and be directly involved with her siblings and their families lives as well as beginning and sustaining her own family, as this was instilled in her at a very young age. In her early teens, working at a downtown ice cream parlor, Sally met and not very long after married her best friend in life, Carl Joseph Stovall (whose immediate family had immigrated to the United States from Italy), also of Dallas, Texas on June 03, 1953. In addition to being devoted to the care and love of her soul mate and husband, Carl and raising her five children through two separate generations (the Baby Boomers and Generation X), she nontraditionally at that time, always worked a full-time job outside of the house, as a bookkeeper for Safeway, and later in life, for an Insurance Agency, while never neglecting the importance of meeting her husband and children’s daily needs; which included among numerous other things, waking them up to a hot homemade freshly cooked breakfast as well as cooking hot homemade meals for everyone as they arrived home from work and school too. Furthermore, she was actively involved in her church and she often volunteered as a seamstress for many including the priest, nuns, and altar boy’s clergy clothing within the Catholic church.

Throughout her life, Sally loved her faith, family, food, and quality time with special friends and loved ones. She was a dedicated, loyal, and a protective person to all those she knew and loved. Despite growing up during the Great Depression as a very young fourth of eight children and overcoming the hard times that followed that generation, she learned through her ever-growing faith, hope, and love, that she was here to know, love, and serve her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Until the end, she truly gave all she had, and it often was never enough, but she made the most of every day given and all that she had to live her best life through her life’s journey of daily living, accomplishments, achievements, trials, challenges, obstacles and tragedies as well as those of friends and loved ones around her.

She was preceded in death by her parents; David Amos Gregson, Mary Lou Ella Eastham Gregson, four siblings, Lilly Dale Howell, Little John Clay Gregson, David Ann Gregson, and Mary Lou Vandever, and her loving and faithful husband of 35 years, Carl Joseph Stovall.

She is survived by three sisters, Ola May Hudspeth, Margie Cater, and Katherine Soper, her son and wife, Joe & Debbie Stovall, daughter and husband, Carla & Larry Davis, daughter and husband, Susan & Mark Harris, and twin daughters, Ami & Jami Stovall, her 10 grandchildren, Jennifer Robinson, Jason Raglin, Julie Stovall, David Raglin, Brandon Harris, Justin Harris, Jessica Harris, Tiffany Skaer Moore, Nathan Rhodes, and Ryleigh Rhodes, Robyn & Randi Davis, her 19+ great grandchildren, Zachary and Adam Robinson, Jordan and Jacob Raglin, David and Meadow Raglin, Westley & Hailey Harris, Luke, Leighton, and Lainey Harris, Aidan Michael and Birdie May, Malachi, Rayleigh, Elizabeth, Harlie, Allison, Mary, and two on the way, Jenson Clay, and her many nieces and nephews. All of these she loved and touched deeply.

A gathering of family and friends will be held 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM on Monday, August 10, 2020 at New Hope Funeral Home, followed by a Funeral Service at 12:00 PM, with Chaplain Jeff Taylor officiating. Interment will follow at Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Paralyzed & Disabled Veterans of America or any local Christian church of your choosing.

View Sally's service here.