Mary Sue Barnette Gregory, 87, of St. Petersburg, Florida, and Glenville, North Carolina, entered eternal rest on Friday, December 08, 2023, at 4:30 p.m., at CarePartners Hospice Solace Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

Mary Sue was born on October 29, 1936, in Leesburg, Florida, to Philip Dowdell and W.L. "Pete" Barnette. After graduating from Leon High School in Tallahassee in 1954, she studied Elementary Education at Florida State University. At Florida State, Mary Sue joined the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, the Gamma Beta chapter, and continued to participate in local Alpha Gam events in St. Petersburg. 

After graduation, Mary Sue worked as a first-grade teacher in Tampa, Florida, following in the footsteps of many Dowdell relatives who were educators in Hillsborough County. Mary Sue's family came to the Tampa Bay area just after 1900, settling in Hillsborough and Manatee Counties. Her great-grandfather, Christopher Hartwell Davis, built sections of the first railroad into Tampa and beyond to the south. Family members owned and developed—Wimauma, named for her two great aunts, Will and Maude, and her grandmother, Mary.

Mary Sue loved spending childhood summers with cousins, aunts, and uncles in Shellman Bluff, a fish camp village enmeshed in oak hammocks on the marshy tidal coast of Georgia.

In 1958, Mary Sue met the love of her life, Rowland, in Tampa, and they wed in 1959 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida. In 1960, their son, Greg, was born in Tampa; in 1967, their daughter, Susan, was born in Clearwater. Not long after, Mary Sue dedicated her life to being a full-time mother. Mary Sue excelled at supporting her family. She made it her mission to improve the lives of others, and she was a passionate gardener in Florida and North Carolina. She and Rowland enjoyed spending much of the year in North Carolina, where Mary Sue's parents established a family mountain home in 1957. Mary Sue also enjoyed handcrafting pottery and macramé and was an avid reader, excellent cook, and caregiver.

Mary Sue made many friends living in St. Petersburg as a Lakewood United Methodist Church member, especially her cherished Koinonia friends. She enjoyed her "southside neighbors" and friends she met through her children's activities and Welcome Wagon meetings. In her last months, reading cards and letters from these friends and visits with some dear cousins and close friends meant the world to her. We will all miss her greatly.

Mary Sue's mother, father, and granddaughter, Celeste Elise Dalabakis, predeceased her. Rowland E. Gregory, Sr., her loving and devoted husband of sixty-four years; Greg Gregory, her son; Susan Elizabeth Gregory, her daughter; and Elyse Noelle Dalabakis and Sophia Elizabeth Dalabakis, her granddaughters, survived her.

The family requests that you consider making a gift in loving memory of Mary Sue to the Albert Carlton - Cashiers Community Library. A funeral service and interment ceremony will be on Saturday, January 13, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, 1200 Snell Isle Boulevard NE, St. Petersburg, Florida. A luncheon and slideshow celebrating Mary Sue's beautiful life will follow in the parish hall.

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