Mary Anne, "Anne", Tatum was born on April 4 in 1936 in the Hospital of St. Therese in Beaumont, Texas, a foreshadowing of her future Catholic conversion. Her family moved to Houston a few years later where she grew up. She attended the University of Houston and graduated with a degree in Music from the Conservatory and in Education. She met her husband, Thomas Aucoin, at UH. On their first date for coffee he announced to her he was going to marry her. Her Methodist family had not wanted her to go to a Catholic college because there "you will meet & marry a Catholic." So, she went to UH where… she met & married a Catholic!
Mom took instruction from the La Salette Fathers & they were married in their church of St. Peter the Apostle, on February 2, 1958, Feast of the Purification, another foreshadowing of her future conversion. Mom was 21; Dad was 31. They had 3 children, Kathleen, Nancy and Steve. When Steve was age 1, Mom was listening to a sermon in her Methodist church which made her realize she believed in the Catholic Faith but was resisting converting simply because “in my family we are Methodist”. She entered the Catholic Church on December 8. With Dad she sent us to Catholic grade school and high school, but also shared her Faith with us in various ways on her own. One of our fondest memories from childhood was Mom taking us to Our Mother of Perpetual Help devotions at Holy Ghost Catholic Church on Wednesday evenings.
Years later, St. Therese again overshadowed her life when Mom was looking for a church that would allow her to receive Communion kneeling. For some reason she spied a flyer rolled up behind the statue of St. Therese in St. Anne’s Church on Westheimer; on the flyer was information about St. Judes & the Latin Mass. She attended her first Mass at St. Judes 42 years ago & never left. She bought a library of Catholic books and lives of Saints to study the True Church & Latin Mass more & so passed on her strong Faith to her children.
Dad started his own company and Mom helped him in the office for a few years before staying home. She became involved in our many activities and used her many talents to enrich our family & home life, such as designing and sewing All Saints Day costumes, bridesmaid dresses when Nancy got married, tailored coats, doll clothes, aprons, pleated drapes.... She was also a talented artist who could draw & paint; a beautiful still life she painted hangs in Nancy's living room to this day. She was the best cook and we grew up with home cooked meals - no one could beat her fried chicken & pot roast.
Mom opened her home & her heart to anyone who needed a port in a storm or a place to stay for any reason; she did not hesitate to say "yes" & to help whenever any relative or friend was in need. When elderly relatives needed physical care or someone to administrate their estate matters, mom would jump in & handle it all, even the most difficult caregiving tasks; she did not flinch at anything.
Mom took in her elderly mother to care for her in her own home until she died. And just moments before her father died in hospital, she asked the nurse to give her a few moments alone with him. She obtained his consent to be baptized into the Catholic Church and then baptized him – a Methodist who for some reason had never been baptized - just moments before he breathed his last - on her birthday, April 4. She always looked on this as one of the greatest acts of her life & it brought her great joy & peace.
Mom was a talented pianist. Our parents had many family parties through the years & her piano playing & famous cooking made them so much fun & looked forward to. She could also play by ear & could play anyone’s request & the guests would stand around the piano & sing until the early hours of the morning.
When any of us children was down & needed a shoulder to lean on Mom was there to listen, for hours on end. When Nancy married & had several small children but also was working helping her husband start his law practice, our parents bought the house next to Nancy's house & moved to live next door to them for 30 years. Mom would babysit the grandchildren daily, take them to daily Mass & to do altar flowers, or on outings, do art projects with them, watch Madeline cartoons; she influenced them with her love of good literature such as Jane Austin & Dickens. In the evenings she and Dad would pray a Rosary with us.
Mom also helped Kathleen with her children many times in the early years as well & was always there for Steve. Whenever any need arose, Mom was there to lend a hand; she never said no to anyone truly in need.
For decades she sang in the choir at St. Judes Shrine and bought & arranged the altar flowers every week for Sunday Mass. Using her sewing gifts, she hand made all the tabernacle veils at St. Judes, the prie-dieu covers, & many other altar coverings & liturgical items requiring fabric, thread & ornamentation. She took home the linen altar cloths & washed & ironed them by hand, then returned to carefully dress the altar with the linen cloths and beautiful flower arrangements she had fashioned.
Mom’s many gifts, graces & talents beautified & enriched our lives for 88 years. Our mother was the quiet, steadfast, unsung heroine of our family, quietly working to elevate hearth & home & the tenor of our inter-generational family life, (china, crystal & white tablecloth – no paper plates allowed on Feast Days!), setting a good example in her steadfast practice of the One True Catholic Faith, fidelity in marriage & feminine modesty.
What most edifies us children about her last tedious years of suffering and declining with dementia and all its effects is that she never complained and always seemed content with her life. The Good Lord took her home quickly on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024, after being bedridden for only 6 days & a short final agony of only 2 hours. May she rest in peace.
Funeral Services will be on March 27, 2024, at St. Jude Shrine (3103 N. Main Street, Stafford, TX 77477). Visitation will be at 9:00 AM, the Rosary at 9:30 AM, and Mass at 10:00 AM. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery (3502 N Main, Houston, TX 77009).
Thank you for visiting this memorial web page. Please sign the online guest book to let the family know you were here thinking of them.
St. Jude Shrine
St. Jude Shrine
St. Jude Shrine
Holy Cross Cemetery (Houston, TX)
Mary Anne, "Anne", Tatum was born on April 4 in 1936 in the Hospital of St. Therese in Beaumont, Texas, a foreshadowing of her future Catholic conversion. Her family moved to Houston a few years later where she grew up. She attended the University of Houston and graduated with a degree in Music from the Conservatory and in Education. She met her husband, Thomas Aucoin, at UH. On their first date for coffee he announced to her he was going to marry her. Her Methodist family had not wanted her to go to a Catholic college because there "you will meet & marry a Catholic." So, she went to UH where… she met & married a Catholic!
Mom took instruction from the La Salette Fathers & they were married in their church of St. Peter the Apostle, on February 2, 1958, Feast of the Purification, another foreshadowing of her future conversion. Mom was 21; Dad was 31. They had 3 children, Kathleen, Nancy and Steve. When Steve was age 1, Mom was listening to a sermon in her Methodist church which made her realize she believed in the Catholic Faith but was resisting converting simply because “in my family we are Methodist”. She entered the Catholic Church on December 8. With Dad she sent us to Catholic grade school and high school, but also shared her Faith with us in various ways on her own. One of our fondest memories from childhood was Mom taking us to Our Mother of Perpetual Help devotions at Holy Ghost Catholic Church on Wednesday evenings.
Years later, St. Therese again overshadowed her life when Mom was looking for a church that would allow her to receive Communion kneeling. For some reason she spied a flyer rolled up behind the statue of St. Therese in St. Anne’s Church on Westheimer; on the flyer was information about St. Judes & the Latin Mass. She attended her first Mass at St. Judes 42 years ago & never left. She bought a library of Catholic books and lives of Saints to study the True Church & Latin Mass more & so passed on her strong Faith to her children.
Dad started his own company and Mom helped him in the office for a few years before staying home. She became involved in our many activities and used her many talents to enrich our family & home life, such as designing and sewing All Saints Day costumes, bridesmaid dresses when Nancy got married, tailored coats, doll clothes, aprons, pleated drapes.... She was also a talented artist who could draw & paint; a beautiful still life she painted hangs in Nancy's living room to this day. She was the best cook and we grew up with home cooked meals - no one could beat her fried chicken & pot roast.
Mom opened her home & her heart to anyone who needed a port in a storm or a place to stay for any reason; she did not hesitate to say "yes" & to help whenever any relative or friend was in need. When elderly relatives needed physical care or someone to administrate their estate matters, mom would jump in & handle it all, even the most difficult caregiving tasks; she did not flinch at anything.
Mom took in her elderly mother to care for her in her own home until she died. And just moments before her father died in hospital, she asked the nurse to give her a few moments alone with him. She obtained his consent to be baptized into the Catholic Church and then baptized him – a Methodist who for some reason had never been baptized - just moments before he breathed his last - on her birthday, April 4. She always looked on this as one of the greatest acts of her life & it brought her great joy & peace.
Mom was a talented pianist. Our parents had many family parties through the years & her piano playing & famous cooking made them so much fun & looked forward to. She could also play by ear & could play anyone’s request & the guests would stand around the piano & sing until the early hours of the morning.
When any of us children was down & needed a shoulder to lean on Mom was there to listen, for hours on end. When Nancy married & had several small children but also was working helping her husband start his law practice, our parents bought the house next to Nancy's house & moved to live next door to them for 30 years. Mom would babysit the grandchildren daily, take them to daily Mass & to do altar flowers, or on outings, do art projects with them, watch Madeline cartoons; she influenced them with her love of good literature such as Jane Austin & Dickens. In the evenings she and Dad would pray a Rosary with us.
Mom also helped Kathleen with her children many times in the early years as well & was always there for Steve. Whenever any need arose, Mom was there to lend a hand; she never said no to anyone truly in need.
For decades she sang in the choir at St. Judes Shrine and bought & arranged the altar flowers every week for Sunday Mass. Using her sewing gifts, she hand made all the tabernacle veils at St. Judes, the prie-dieu covers, & many other altar coverings & liturgical items requiring fabric, thread & ornamentation. She took home the linen altar cloths & washed & ironed them by hand, then returned to carefully dress the altar with the linen cloths and beautiful flower arrangements she had fashioned.
Mom’s many gifts, graces & talents beautified & enriched our lives for 88 years. Our mother was the quiet, steadfast, unsung heroine of our family, quietly working to elevate hearth & home & the tenor of our inter-generational family life, (china, crystal & white tablecloth – no paper plates allowed on Feast Days!), setting a good example in her steadfast practice of the One True Catholic Faith, fidelity in marriage & feminine modesty.
What most edifies us children about her last tedious years of suffering and declining with dementia and all its effects is that she never complained and always seemed content with her life. The Good Lord took her home quickly on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024, after being bedridden for only 6 days & a short final agony of only 2 hours. May she rest in peace.
Funeral Services will be on March 27, 2024, at St. Jude Shrine (3103 N. Main Street, Stafford, TX 77477). Visitation will be at 9:00 AM, the Rosary at 9:30 AM, and Mass at 10:00 AM. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery (3502 N Main, Houston, TX 77009).
Thank you for visiting this memorial web page. Please sign the online guest book to let the family know you were here thinking of them.
I am a visiting parishioner at St Jude’s Shrine. I read your Mom’s wonderful obituary and was greatly edified by her life and faith I will continue to pray for her soul in my daily Rosary I also will pray for your family for your comfort in your grief over her loss God bless you and keep you always
On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank you and your staff for your excellent and caring service.
Thank you for all you did to make our mother's funeral special, dignified, and easy for us.
I just can't express to you enough how much we appreciated the kindness and professionalism my family experienced with you and your staff.
Thank you for treating my beloved mother with honor and respect all throughout the process.
Our family will be forever grateful to the owner and staff at Beresford Funeral Services for the excellent services they provided to our family upon the death of our loved one. Everything went smoothly. The planning was easy with everything needed for the funeral provided on sight at reasonable prices with no pressure to spend more than planned. They were flexible with our personal plans, very kind, and considerate from beginning to end. We would definitely recommend Beresford Funeral Services to anyone in need of funeral services.
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