Mary Ann was born April 25, 1943, in Houston, Texas, to George Daniel and Gladys Luby Hembree. She grew up in a large family that moved often because of her father's service in the US Navy and as a meteorologist. She attended Catholic schools, loved her family fiercely, and as a young girl discovered another great love: dance.

Her childhood also asked much of her. Her mother was frequently ill and died at only 42 years old. Mary Ann helped care for her younger brothers and sisters. She learned very young how to step into the space where someone was needed—a pattern that would quietly define the rest of her life.

At 18, while living in Washington, D.C., Mary Ann's car broke down along the side of the road. A tall, dark and handsome young Marine named Raymond "Gus" Edward Gustin stopped to help. The rest, as they say, was history.

Mary Ann and Gus married and had five children. Military life meant long separations, including Gus's deployments to Okinawa, Guam, Guantanamo Bay and two long tours in Vietnam, and Mary Ann carried the enormous responsibility of raising their children while he was away. She was the kind of mom that let you keep a turtle in a box under the bed, tucked you in every night to say your prayers, was a leader in Boy Scouts, Brownies, Girl Scouts, and 4-H. Halloween costumes and Easter dresses were handmade every year and every holiday and birthday was a chance to decorate and celebrate.

Wherever the military sent them, Mary Ann became one of those people who drew others together. She cared for neighbors, supported other military spouses and built life-long friendships.

After 23 years of military life, Mary Ann and Gus began a very different adventure, buying a 15-acre hobby farm in Salem, Missouri. Together they raised fields of pick-your-own strawberries, honeybee hives, Christmas trees and filled their land with gladiolus, daylilies, creeping phlox and other flowers. They sold what they grew at farmers markets throughout Missouri. They were extraordinarily hard workers, but for Mary Ann, gardening was more than work. She simply loved growing beautiful things.

When her five children were grown, Mary Ann continued caring for children. She worked for many years at a school serving children with disabilities and even learning Braille and Sign Language to better communicate.

Then came a ministry that would become one of the defining works of her life.

Mary Ann believed deeply in the sanctity of life from conception. It was a core conviction of her faith, but she was never content simply to speak about what she believed. At a gathering where people were praying for women facing difficult pregnancies, Mary Ann joined in asking a courageous question: What if, instead of only praying, they also helped the women who needed them?

So she did.

With friends and supporters, Mary Ann helped build what became Riverways Pregnancy Resource Center, creating a place where women and families could receive tangible support—parenting and financial education, counseling, clothing, diapers, ultrasounds and help navigating difficult circumstances.

Mary Ann believed people needed more than words about love. They needed to experience it. If someone needed food, clothing, encouragement, prayer or simply another person beside them, Mary Ann had a remarkable way of finding out and showing up.

She became a gifted fundraiser and tireless advocate for Riverways. She never wanted credit for any of it. But her work on behalf of thousands of teens, pregnant women and families earned recognition from her community, including being named Dent County Citizen of the Year.

Years later, Mary Ann and her sister, Peggy, put the story of Riverways into a book, Let the Miracles Begin: The Story of Riverways Pregnancy Resource Center. She didn't consider herself a writer. She simply believed the story was too wonderful not to tell.

That was Mary Ann. The story was never supposed to be about her.

Her faith was the foundation beneath all of it.

Mary Ann was an integral part of every church family she joined and an extraordinary woman of prayer. She believed whole-heartedly that prayer worked. She helped develop a prayer and intercessory ministry, praying for others even while undergoing her own cancer treatments.

Her hands were rarely still. She loved gardening, baking bread, knitting and crocheting, creating pieces beautiful enough to become family treasures. When grandchildren began arriving, she learned to quilt and made a baby quilt for each one. Eventually there were 13 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, with number 18, Miles Johnson, soon to arrive.

Mary Ann would not get to place Miles's finished quilt around him herself, so she did something else. She taught her daughter how to make it, step by step.

Perhaps that is the best way to understand the life she lived. Mary Ann spent more than eight decades quietly leaving pieces of herself in other people: in siblings she helped raise, five children she loved without condition, grandchildren and great-grandchildren wrapped in quilts and prayer, children she cared for at school, mothers who found help when they needed it, a pregnancy resource center that continued after her work was done, a church taught to pray for one another, gardens she planted, and friendships that lasted across years and miles.

Her family always knew how deeply they loved her. What they could not fully comprehend until the end of her life was just how many other people loved her, too. The outpouring of prayers, stories, and pleas for more time with her revealed something Mary Ann herself would probably never have claimed:

Her quiet life had been anything but small. She had simply spent it doing what came naturally to her—loving God, loving her family, and taking care of whoever was placed in front of her.

Mary Ann was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 49 years, Raymond; her parents, George and Gladys; her sister, Marilyn; her brothers Dennis and Pat, and her nephews, Michael Hembree and Ryan Hembree.

She is survived by her siblings Peggy, Danny, Mike, Dottie, Barry, Wanda and Dora; her five children, Richard Gustin (Beth), Debbie Glenn (Lonny), Kim Townsend, Rebecca Johnson (Jeff) and Molly Brooks (Bobby); and her 13 grandchildren, Rita, Amber, Kristy, Amy, Emily, Willie, Kenny, Jesse, Brady, Lisa, Ben, Sam and Bryce. She is survived by 18 great-grandchildren: Elijah, Isabella, Grant, Isaac, Emma, Ash, Olivia, Logan, Caliel, Bently, Waylon, Corin, Curt, Gus, Alex, Lilah, Quinn, and Miles.

They are only part of the family Mary Ann leaves behind. There are also her cousins, nieces and nephews, many dear friends, neighbors, church families, women she encouraged, children she cared for and people whose lives are different because Mary Ann Gustin was part of them.

A private family graveside service will be held on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 2pm at the Missouri Veteran’s Cemetery, Fort Leonard Wood.

A celebration of life service will be held for friends and family on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 11am at Schweitzer Church, Springfield, Missouri. A Livestream will be available at the church’s website.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Riverways Pregnancy Resource Center.