Mary Gardiner Tims

MARY GARDINER TIMS TUPELO--Mary Gardiner Tims died June 23, 2013, at North Mississippi Medical Center after an illness of about three months. She was 30. She was the beloved daughter of Pamela Cox and Otis Tims and the devoted sister and best friend of Elisabeth Clark Tims, all of Tupelo. "MG," as she was known to her many friends, loved the Episcopal Church. She was baptized in St. Peter's, Oxford, and was a lifelong communicant of All Saints, Tupelo, where she served for many years as an acolyte team captain. In her youth, she frequently attended the Annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi and enjoyed the 1994 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Indianapolis. Mary Gardiner will be remembered by her diverse groups of friends for her powerful personality and intense love of life and as a delightful conversationalist. An honors graduate of Tupelo High School, she studied literature and religions at The University of Mississippi. She was an avid Ole Miss football fan and enjoyed introducing new students to the University as an Ole Miss Ambassador. Mary Gardiner was known for her keen interest and active participation in the performing arts. An actor, singer and dancer, she appeared in numerous Tupelo Community Theatre productions, beginning at age nine with a role in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." She appeared in adult productions as well as youth productions and took special pleasure in her role as Winifred in "Once Upon A Mattress." She had leading roles in many Tupelo High School theater productions. In addition to on-stage performance, she found fulfillment in the technical aspects of theatre, often working as a stage manager or assistant. She directed one Tupelo Community Theatre Summer Youth Production. She enjoyed and closely followed the New York theatre scene and developed a deep knowledge of Broadway musicals, especially the works of Stephen Sondheim. Before her recent illness, she was studying in the Theatre Department at the University of Southern Mississippi. In addition to her parents and sister, she leaves an uncle, Arthur Anderson Cox (Mary Anne) of Naples, Florida; an aunt, Elva Kaye Lance (Kent Payne) of Starkville; her stepmother, Susan Tims of Tupelo; her step-siblings, John Morris (Jennifer) of Knoxville, Tennessee, George Booth III (Stephanie) of Greenville, South Carolina, Catherine Lacey Booth of New York, New York, and Emily Roth (Andrew) of New York; her maternal great-aunts Elsie Allums of Winter Park, Florida, and Robbie Clark (Gene Walters) of Centerville; her cousin Dana Lance (Santiago Doyhenard) of Miami, Florida; and her god-parents Wylly Stirling of Mobile, Alabama, Jill Niell of Boston, and Tom Pittman of Hernando. Her grandparents were the late Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Anderson Cox of Marco Island, Florida, and the late Mr. and Mrs. William Elzie Tims of Waynesboro, Mississippi. She was descended from the earliest English settlers of New York, whose farms included the area now known as the Hamptons, as well as from a pioneer South Mississippi lumbering family. Visitation will be Tuesday 5-7 p.m. and Wednesday from 2-3 p.m. in the Parish Hall of All Saints Episcopal Church. Services will follow at 3 p.m. at All Saints, with the Rev. Paul Stephens, the Rev. Stanford Adams, the Rev. Gene Asbury, and the Rev. Jim Curtis participating. Her ashes will be interred on the Ole Miss campus, at her family's summer home in Daphne, Alabama, and at St. Francis Chapel at Kanuga, the Episcopal Conference Center in Western North Carolina. Gifts in memory of Mary Gardiner may be made to All Saints Episcopal Church, Tupelo, or to Kanuga Conferences, Inc., Hendersonville, N.C. Expressions of sympathy may be left at www.peguesfuneralhome.com .