Mary Eunice Underwood Glazener

Seventy-two years and a day after marrying the love of her life, Mary Eunice Underwood Glazener, 94, passed peacefully from this life to eternal life on April 3, 2016. She is survived by her husband, O.W.; brother, John Underwood; children, Janet Roma (Gene), Charlie Glazener (Patricia), and Joy Glazener; two grandchildren, Amy Mathis (Stoney) and Jason Glazener (Chiemi); and five great-grandchildren. Mary was born in Atlanta on October 14, 1921, and with her younger brother experienced a humble childhood in small WNC towns like Hayesville and Sparta, where her father, the Rev. John L. Underwood and mother, Eunice, served rural Baptist churches. It was at Mount Moriah Calvert Baptist Church near Rosman where Mary met O.W. in 1939. He admired her adventurous spirit --- she would ice skate in January 1940 on the French Broad River, when the mercury plunged to 18 below zero --- and their first real date was a trek into the Great Smokies, where a cozy little picnic became even sweeter when Mary inadvertently sat down in the middle of the lemon meringue pie that O.W.'s mother Bess had sent with the couple. Following a long-distance courtship, they were married at West Asheville Baptist Church on April 2, 1944 and endured several Navy assignments and separations until a year after World War II ended. Mary was an incredible wife, mother and homemaker in the 50s and 60s, although she ventured out from 1955-57 to become "Mary Make Believe" as host of WLOS-TV's first live weekday children's show, "Tot Town." On one occasion she served as the emcee at a jam-packed McCormick Field when the Lone Ranger and Silver visited Asheville, presenting each child in attendance with a replica of a silver bullet. Mary also shared her love for her Heavenly Father and the arts via religious plays that she wrote, produced and directed at West Asheville Baptist Church across many summers. In December 1967 the Asheville Citizen named her Woman of the Week in a feature story. Mary and O.W moved to Clemson in 1970, where at the age of 53 she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree, and then returned to campus to direct the musical "Promises, Promises." It was about this time that she embarked upon a decade-long quest to share the story of German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his resistance to the Nazi Regime. That journey took Mary behind the Berlin Wall to East Germany and eventually culminated in her evocative historical novel, "The Cup of Wrath," first published in 1992 and now available globally in multiple languages. Mary and O.W. returned to WNC in 1995, where for 21 years they lived out a life of faith, family and friends. Both were regular attendees at First Baptist Church, Asheville, and members of the Seekers Bible Class. Mary, O.W. recalls, prayed for the well-being of the church, its staff and families each and every morning until her recent illness. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5 in the chapel of First Baptist Church, Asheville, the Reverend Leah Brown presiding. The family will receive friends after the service. A private graveside interment will follow at Mount Moriah Calvert Baptist Church in the family plot just down the hill from where this dear saint and O. W. first met nearly eight decades ago. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to CarePartners Hospice, P.O. Box 25338, Asheville, NC 28813, or The Sacred Garden, First Baptist Church of Asheville, 5 Oak St., Asheville, NC 28801. Groce Funeral Home on Patton Ave. is assisting the family.