Ellen Marie Wigley Hewett was born the last of five children to Archie Allen “Buck” Wigley and Lois Evelene Burns Wigley on November 3, 1937 in San Antonio, Texas.
A native Texan, she attended Lamar University, and Baptist Hospital in Beaumont, Texas, receiving a registered nurse degree. She married Bill Hewett on February 14, 1959 in Beaumont. They moved to Galveston, Texas, where Bill finished his last three months of Medical school, and Marie worked in the operating room at the University of Texas Medical Branch. After that it was a move to San Antonio, where Bill did his internship at Brook Army Hospital and flight surgery training. Marie worked in the operating room at Nix Hospital. They then moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Bill served as a flight surgeon for the Strategic Air Command, and their son Bradley was born. From Nebraska they moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Bill did a radiology residency, and Marie worked on the first open heart team at Oschers Clinic and Hospital. They moved to Huntsville, Alabama in 1966, when Bill joined Radiology Associates.
Marie was a member of the Medical Alliance, the Carillion Club, the Cosmopolitan Club, and served on the board of the Historic Lowry House, as well as chairing many events. She was a professional free-lance model, apparel buyer and fashion coordinator. She enjoyed tennis, bridge, water skiing, snow skiing, and gardening. In 1989, she founded the Professional Academy of Modeling and Acting, better known as Pama. It is the oldest modeling agency in the state of Alabama. She retired in 2009 and sold the agency to her very good friend Gayle Cochran, who is still running it with great success in finding top models. Marie established the Bill V. Hewett and V. Bradley Hewett Memorial Scholarship foundation in 2013 to help worthy medical and nursing students. She attended Monte Sano United Methodist Church.
Marie was preceded in death by her parents, Lois and Buck Wigley, husband of 43 years, Bill V. Hewett, brothers, R. E. and Arthur Wigley, sisters, Ida Wigley and Dorothy Holbrook, and son, V. Bradley Hewett.
Survivors include all her cherished friends in Huntsville, especially Norma Lindsey and Lloyd Garrison; her wonderful care givers, Kim Wilson, Eileen Whitbread, Edna Tate, Norma Lindsey and Loraine Alvis; nephew, Arthur Wigley Jr.; and nieces, Brenda Flemming, Lois Childress, Barbara Gross, and Evelyn and Deborah Wigley, all of Texas.
The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, July 29 at Laughlin Service Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Dale Clem officiating. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, Marie requested donations be made to the Memorial Medical Scholarship honoring V. Bradley Hewett and Bill V. Hewett M.D., established at the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, 101 Sivley Rd., Huntsville, Alabama, 35801-9948.
