Evelyn Jene Mayr Mann Kemp, age 101, died peacefully on Wednesday, May 15th, 2024.

Born March 21, 1923, in Waco, Texas at her grandmother's home on Speight Avenue. She lived in Waco and Austin, Texas with her mother Pauline Rash Mayr McKinney. As a teenager, Evelyn Jene moved to Houston to live with her father Ernest W. Mayr and attended Stephen F. Austin High School where she was a member of the Scottish Brigade Drill Team.

After graduation she returned to Waco, Texas where she met William David Mann who was stationed there during WWII. They married in New Orleans on their way to his next aircraft training at the US Air Force Air Base in Sebring, Florida. Relocations continued throughout California and other states. In 1949 she and David moved from Southern California to Dallas by flying their two-seater airplane that they built themselves, following the highways because that didn't have a compass. David began a new career flying for Braniff Airlines located at Love Field. In 1951 they moved to the bustling community of Irving, Texas, population 2,500, where she raised three children, Christopher Browning Mann, Amy Elizabeth Mann Scott and Elizabeth Browning Mann Lindemann.

Jene and David volunteered countless time and talents in building a new chapel at St. Mary's Episcopal Church on Story Road. In the 60's, during David's days off, he built furniture pieces while Jene beautifully decorated each, either by silkscreen or decoupage. These items were featured at Dallas Market Center and sold in Neiman Marcus stores. Jene also started a children's clothing line called Amy's Originals available at the Dallas Apparel Mart.

In the Seventies the two divorced and she remarried, to Charles E. Kemp. Jene returned to school at North Lake College where she first immersed herself into pottery and later, earned her Associates Degree in Arts & Sciences, in 1982.

Throughout her adult life she has traveled extensively around the world. In 1997, Jene moved to San Miguel de Allende where she lived for 16 years. With art schools readily available, she engaged herself in the surrounding culture while producing her finest works in pastel and watercolor mediums, focusing on landscapes and still life subjects.

Jene returned home to her beloved Irving residence at the age of 90 where she enjoyed gardening and gathering with her neighbors nightly on her front porch.

Survivors include Christopher Browning Mann (wife Karen Schlueter), Dallas Texas; Amy Mann Scott, Irving, Texas; and Elizabeth Browning Lindemann (husband Gary Lindemann), Lockhart, Texas.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, June 15th at 2:00pm at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 635 N. Story Road, in Irving, Texas. Relatives and friends are welcome to join us in the St. Mary's Parish Hall for refreshments after the services.

Please leave the family condolences and share memories on this website.

Arrangements under the direction of:

Aria Cremation Service & Funeral Home

1820 N. Belt Line Road

Irving, Texas 75061

(972) 607-4400