Beloved wife, mother, nurse, and teacher, Mary Helen Alayyan passed away Friday, September 4, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. She was 86 years young.

Mary was born on March 7, 1940, at her family’s home in Truscott, Texas to Helen Chowning and Oscar Whitaker. She was their eldest daughter, followed six years later by her sister Jan. With her father’s work in telephone construction, the family moved several times around the South Plains, finally settling in Tahoka, Texas. There, Mary attended and graduated 3rd in her class from Tahoka High School in 1958. She was on the basketball and tennis teams, (later teaching her children how to play tennis).

Mary left Tahoka to attend Baylor University, where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1962. She joined the US Army Nursing Corps and was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia until her Honorable Discharge as 1st Lieutenant in 1963. While in the army, she met and married 2nd Lieutenant Gary Warner of Ogden, Utah. Following his death in December 1963, she returned to Texas and soon welcomed her first daughter, Laura Warner, in June of 1964. Mary and Laura moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1965, where Mary worked as an RN at West Texas Hospital. She joined the faculty of Methodist Hospital (now Providence) School of Nursing in 1966, where she taught for 44 years until her retirement in 2010. Mary obtained her Master of Arts degree in 1979, in Psychology, Counseling and Guidance from the University of Northern Colorado.

She was a treasured nursing instructor and colleague, “graciously passing down [her] knowledge, experience, and abilities with little recognition for the abundance of effort [she] put forth every day,” as wrote one of her students. She certainly put forth an abundance of effort and love into everything she did, always for others, whether for her patients, students, friends, colleagues, and especially her family.

In 1977, she married Sudqi Hussein Alayyan of Al-Abassiya, Palestine. Mary loved traveling and learning about new cultures, and Sudqi wooed Mary with his cooking of Middle Eastern food and love for his large family in Jordan. Together they had 2 children, Amber and Hussein. They remained in Lubbock and were married for 34 years, until Sudqi passed away in 2011. Sudqi was an Associate Professor of engineering at Texas Tech University. As educators Mary and Sudqi instilled their commitment to scholarship and curiosity in all three children.

Mary’s greatest gift to her children was her value for human life and goodness. People who had the fortune to know her immediately refer to her empathy, kindness, and generosity. She gave to multiple charities, always made time to listen to any and everyone (even if it meant she would be late somewhere else), and most notably, she showed people she cared with action and dedication. She was a self-proclaimed “back-sliding” Baptist who bravely lived and taught by example.

What was not always apparent was her almost shocking and wicked sense of humor, another gift she bestowed on her children. Her Texas charm and kind nature would distract her audience while she made a mischievous, subtle remark that left nothing but tears of laughter in her wake. Her love of baking, music, playing piano, telling stories of her childhood, reading, watching horror movies and romantic comedies, catching up with old friends, hearing stories of her grandchildren’s mischief and new discoveries—these are the memories her family will cherish.

Mary leaves behind her devoted sister Jan; three eternally grateful children, Laura, Amber, and Hussein; cherished extended family: son-in-law Massimiliano, Ashley, and Jill; and three spitfire grandchildren (just like their Grandma), Elias, Jude, and Noah. “Love you bunches.”

A Celebration Memorial Service will beat 2:00 pm, Saturday, October 24, 2026, at Combest Family Memorial Chapel in Lubbock.