Mary Marley Scott Pipkin of Ripley, TN passed away on March 28 at Bells Nursing Home in Bells, TN. Known to all as Mary Marley, the Ripley native was the daughter of Adam (Son) and Mary Scott and, for 64 years, the wife of the late Robert Reed (Bob) Pipkin, Sr.
A 1949 graduate of Ripley High School, she attended Vanderbilt University where she was a member of the Alpha Omega Pi sorority. Mary Marley interrupted her college studies when she married and moved five miles south to Henning, where she and her husband started a family. She returned to both Ripley and college in the coming years. Her family relocated to Ripley in 1966 and she graduated from Memphis State University in 1970.
Following college graduation she taught English at Ripley High School, then joined her husband at Pipkin Insurance where they worked together until 2001.
Mary Marley was an active, lifelong Methodist. She served on the Board of the Ordained Ministry of the Memphis Annual Conference, was a Sunday school teacher, and one of the organizers of the Martha’s Cupboard food ministry at Ripley First United Methodist Church. She always was at the ready to make dishes for Martha’s Cupboard and the church’s Harvest Bazaar.
Her culinary efforts included taking the lead in preparing feasts for an extended family at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Baking was her specialty, and in later years she stayed busy trying to keep up with her great-grandchildren’s insatiable demand for her homemade bread.
Mary Marley took pride in being the mother of three Eagle Scouts and the grandmother of a fourth.
She is survived by four sons; Bob, Jr, (Beverly McKittrick) of Arlington, VA; Scott (Bonnie) and Bailey (Laura) of Jackson, TN; and Lewis of Alexandria, VA; her sister, Elizabeth (John) Turner of Memphis, TN: and sister-in-law, Judy Scott of Paris, TN; four grandchildren, Adam of Jackson, TN; Hillary (Jason Tubb) of Tupelo MS; Eliza (Andrew Ray) of Germantown, TN; and Lewis Marley of Memphis, TN; eight great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her brother, Adam Marley Scott, III of Paris, TN.
The family wishes to thank the staff of Regency Retirement Village in Jackson, TN and Bells Nursing Home in Bells, TN for their capable and compassionate care.
The funeral service will held Saturday, April 6 at First United Methodist Church in Ripley. Visitation will begin at 11:00 a.m. and the service at 12:00 p.m. Garner Funeral Home of Ripley has charge of the services.
