WICHITA — Mary Lou (Bauer) Martin died Sept. 8, 2015. Born July 22, 1938, she was the daughter of Chester E. and Naomi Anderson Bauer. She grew up in Hudson, graduating from Hudson High School in 1956.  She was a loving wife and mother, beloved friend of many, a musician, and an artist. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance and music education in 1960 from Southwestern College in Winfield, and a Master of Music degree in 1962 from Northwestern University. She was an organist and choir director at several churches, and directed many children’s musicals in that role. She was an elementary music education specialist in the Great Bend, Arkansas City, Buhler, Winfield, and Wichita (Cloud Elementary School) school districts. For five years Mary Lou was the accompanist for the Kansas Boys Choir in Hutchinson. She was the founding director of the Walnut Valley Youth Choir in Winfield and directed that choir from 1991 to 1998.
Survivors include her husband of 55 years, Carl E. Martin of Wichita; a son, Andrew Timothy Martin and wife Janelle (Bettin), of Topeka; a daughter, Mary Megann (Martin) Kennedy and husband Dale, of Fort Worth, Texas; four grandchildren, Jacob, Zachary, and Katie Martin, and Grant Kennedy; a brother Thomas A. Bauer of Great Bend, and his three sons, Sam Bauer and his wife Melissa, Luke Bauer and his wife Tracy and Frank Bauer; and a sister-in-law, Leora K. Kline and her husband Bruce E. of Kettering, Ohio, and her children April Kline and her husband David Bush, and Jonathan Kline and his wife Jackie Kline.  
A formal memorial service was held on Sept. 19 in Wichita, at College Hill United Methodist Church. A brief, informal, casual time of remembering Mary Lou will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, at Trinity Community Church in Hudson. Carl E Martin and a few members of Mary Lou’s family will be present. Memory funds have been established at Trinity Community Church, Hudson.
Share tributes online at: www.dlwichita.com.

Funeral arrangements provided by
Downing & Lahey East Mortuary*
6555 E. Central
Wichita, KS 67206
Great Bend (Kans.) Tribune, Sept. 23, 2015