Mary Catherine “Kitty” Holley, 80, of Bryan, passed away on December 30, 2014. A time for family to receive friends will be from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on Friday, January 2, 2015, at Hillier Funeral Home, 2301 E. 29th Street in Bryan. Funeral services will be at 10:00 am on Saturday, January 3, 2015, also at the funeral home. Interment will follow at Rest-Ever Memorial Mausoleum in Bryan. Kitty was born on March 20, 1934, in Big Spring, Texas, to Adele and Tracy Roberts. She graduated from North Texas State College in Denton with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education in 1954. On May 14, 1955, she married US Air Force Lieutenant Edward Eugene Holley, in Big Spring. In 1958, Ed and Kitty moved to Bryan, Texas, where they resided for the rest of their lives and happily raised two daughters. Kitty was woman of diverse interests and talents. She was a public school teacher for a number of years. She was the organist at First United Methodist Church in Bryan for five years in the mid-1960s, and she taught piano in her home for 10 years. In 1974, she became the first Women’s Golf Coach at Texas A&M University, a position she held for 17 years. Kitty was extremely proud of her accomplishments at Texas A&M, where in the early years she not only coached the new team but designed and sewed their uniforms. She led them to a Southwest Conference Championship in 1985, and the team qualified for 9 national championship tournaments. She owned and managed a construction business that built roads, bridges, and other public and private projects in the 1980s and 1990s. She was the women’s club champion or a close runner-up for many years in the 1970s and 1980s at Briarcrest Country Club. Kitty was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her sister, Donnie Byrne. She is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Mike Tankersley of Dallas; daughter, Kelly Grillo of College Station; son-in-law, Gary Shacket of College Station; four grandchildren, Matt Cornell of Durango, Colorado, Andrew Cornell of Orange, California, Marissa Shacket and Michael Shacket of College Station; her sister, Reba Bailey of Odessa; and several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Scott & White Healthcare Foundation (http://foundation.sw.org) or Brazos Valley Hospice, 502 West 26th Street, Bryan, Texas 77803.
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