Mary Elizabeth Howard left this life peacefully on June 8, 2021. A native Memphian, born in 1928, she lived her childhood through the great depression and then WWII. She attended Treadwell High School, graduating in 1946. That same year she married her husband of 60 years Arthur Francis (lovingly A.F.) Howard.

In her civic life, she participated in the Order of the Eastern Star, the Daughters of the King, and was a communicant of St. George's Episcopal Church. She enjoyed entertaining A.F.'s fellow Shriners from the local AL Chymia Shrine Temple; their parties were legendary. During a European trip in the 1960's, she and A.F. decided to buy and send a shipment of furniture and paintings back to the U.S., opening H&R Antiques on their return. At one time the largest wholesale antiques warehouse in the Southeast, it was also a social hub where she made many interesting friends from the local design community, piqued the interest of many young people, and employed many of the beloved Memphis musicians. She later opened Howard Fine Arts on Brookhaven Circle. She was on the Board of Directors for Playhouse on the Square, and went on to become the book-keeper/office manager/intern wrangler and de facto house mother to a thriving theater community, some of whose members have become like family to all of us.

In her personal life, she spent her years raising a group of opinionated daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren who hopefully have inherited some of her strong spirit and will to live. She was a tiny person who was the literal embodiment of strength. She anchored our free spirits here and kept us grounded. Her home was always open to family and friends who would find her in the kitchen during her leisure, sipping her coffee and enjoying the view into the woodlands behind her home. She was an avid and prolific reader. She blessed us all with her sharp wit, a great sense of humor, lots of opinions and plenty of room in her heart for all her cherished canine companions.

She leaves four daughters, Tommie McKee (Kenneth), Barbara Rooney, Zoe Avalon, and Paula Cole (Charlie); twelve grandchildren, Rebecca Smith Olesen (Tonny), Laurie Arthur, Rosemary Matkin (Emmett Hogan), Austin Matkin, Chandra Peterson, Amara Schrager (Sarah Green), Enid Schrager, Nicholas Alexander (Brittany), Brooks Meadows (Halle), Madison Meadows Reep (Hunter), Jonathan Cole and Dillon Cole; and nine great grandchildren Daisy Arthur de la Garza whom she helped to raise, Deia and Adelle Peterson, Charlotte, Parker, and Simon Alexander, and James, Julius and Cordae Schrager. She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Arthur Francis (A.F.) Howard, her mother Viola M Crippin, her father Nute Bledsoe, her stepfather Howard Peck, step brothers William and Howard Peck Jr., her grandson Ian McKee, and her great-grandson Daniel Keith Franks.

There will be a private graveside service for family on Sunday, June 27th. Please join us afterward for a celebration of her life at Playhouse on the Square, Cafe side, from 3-5 pm. We hope to see you there and feel free to share stories of Liz.

High Point Funeral Home and Crematorium has charge. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Playhouse on the Square in her memory.

It was the loving care of her daughter Paula and son-in-law Chuck that made it possible for her to enjoy her later life in the same home where she lived for 58 years.

We are all stardust…with a little moonshine.