News

By Emily J. Minor
    
HYPOLUXO ISLAND — Hers was a life full of passion, people and laughter, lots of laughter.
    “Anyone who met Lib loved her,” remembers Sharon Ehlers, who cared for Mary Elizabeth Sory in the years before Miss Sory’s death.
“Actually, she was in better shape than I was,” Ehlers said, with a laugh. “Five years ago she was still climbing the tree and trimming it.”
    Miss Sory, a longtime Palm Beach County schoolteacher who came here in the 1940s and never left, was 98 when she died April 6 — just a few weeks before her 99th birthday.
    Born in the little town of Cedar Hill, Tenn., on April 30, 1913, she was one of six children — three boys and three girls. The daughter of a country doctor who traveled horseback for house calls, she left home for college, eventually earning two degrees. The first was at Middle Tennessee State College for Teachers, where she graduated in 1935 after studying physical education and art. A few years later, she went to the George Peabody College for Teachers, where in 1943 she received her master’s degree in physical education.
    That year, she came to Lake Worth High School to teach P.E., and she was hired by John I. Leonard — the superintendent of schools at the time, and the namesake for the high school that opened in Greenacres in 1964 and still carries his name.
    When Miss Sory came south, she had family here. All three of her brothers were doctors, practicing in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. (All three of the Sory girls were teachers.) During her early teaching days, Miss Sory worked in the Florida sun. In those days, gym class was almost always outdoors.
    But when a brother worried that his red-haired, fair-skinned sister might be particularly susceptible to skin cancer, she took a job as a guidance counselor at Lake Worth Junior High School.
    When Miss Sory retired from Lake Worth Junior High School in 1974, she had taught in Palm Beach County for 31 years, said her niece, Virginia Sory Brown.
    Miss Sory’s niece described her aunt as selfless, silly and full of adventure. She loved to travel. She loved the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team, attending the NCAA tournaments until very recently. She loved her nieces and nephews. “She was the matriarch to five generations,” her niece said.
    And she loved playing cards and board games, particularly backgammon. Indeed, Miss Sory was known for her ruthless tactics at the backgammon board. “She would take incredible risks,” Ehlers said, “and she would whup my butt.”
    Miss Sory was known for her spirit and feistiness, and she valued those attributes in others. For her 90th birthday, her family and friends reached out to four notable women she admired, and arranged for their birthday wishes to arrive with all the others. Hillary Clinton, Paula Deen, Pat Summitt, the Lady Vols coach who just resigned because of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease; and soap opera star Deidre Hall — they all sent photos with a personal note.
    Miss Sory is survived by nine nieces and nephews, 18 great-nieces and -nephews, numerous great-greats and one great-great-great niece.
    Her long, happy life was celebrated on April 30, which would have been her 99th birthday. Family asks that donations in her memory be made to Lake Worth School Dollars for Scholars Foundation, P.O. Box 1166, Lake Worth, FL 33460.