The Sabine Hall of Fame will honor Mary Bozeman for bringing live theater to Sabine Parish at its banquet on Tuesday, April 26, at St. Joseph’s Hall in Zwolle. After a very successful career in theater, Ms. Bozeman moved back to her native Sabine Parish, founded the Sabine Parish Players and Shakespeare in Sabine and presented theater for 27 years.
She presented “A Christmas Carol” each year for 20 years; her last production of it was about four years ago.
When asked, “Why are the Arts important to our community?” Ms. Bozeman wrote:
“They provide us with a look at the human condition and help us to place ourselves within its context. They differentiate us from the beasts of the field and help us to discern the difference between good and evil. They instill in young people an awareness of their innate value and help them to develop self-esteem. They enrich the spirit of each of us and of life itself.”
Ms. Bozeman was born in Huntington, TX in 1932, the daughter of a Methodist minister, the Rev. Robert Armstrong Bozeman and Maxie Herrington Bozeman. Her father was tragically killed in an auto-train accident near Clarence on March 13, 1940. His death was devastating to Mary, who was eight years old at the time and fully aware that his demise was final. However, out of that experience grew the powerful message about life and death portrayed in her one-woman show “Sim, One Night With A Lady Undertaker From Texas.” Following the death of Mary’s father, Ms. Maxie Bozeman moved her four children ages eight, six, four and eighteen months to Belmont. Mary’s mother died almost forty years later on May 20, 1978.
A sister to Mary, Martha Griffith, said, “Mary’s theatrical nature was evident throughout her childhood. All her life, Mary’s vivid imagination has highly influenced her responses to emotionally charged situations.”
Ms. Bozeman was graduated from Belmont High School. She holds a BA degree from Centenary College in Shreveport in Speech and English and an MA in Theatre from Baylor University in Dallas. She was a member of the Actor’s Equity Association.
She is most remembered for her one-woman presentation of “Sim, One Night With A Lady Undertaker From Texas,” which the New York Times called, “Entertaining, funny, touching Americana.” Her husband, William Osborn, wrote the comedy based on the true experiences of a remarkable woman, Mrs. Elma Beale Beck, who began her unusual career in a small Texas town in the 1920s. It is said that Sim is stranger than fiction and funnier.
Rutgers Student Radio said of the production: “Mary Bozeman is fantastic. One would think that the story of an undertaker would be cold and depressing. However, Sim is anything but cold and depressing. Mary makes the audience glow with enthusiasm for her character. Sim’s stories are fascinating both in their seriousness and humor. Aside from making the seemingly mundane life of an undertaker incredibly interesting and endearing, Mary makes Sim come alive on stage. It is a night not soon forgotten.”
Her work includes numerous appearances in New York City theatres, The Nutmeg in Connecticut, the Shreveport Summer Theatre, The Alley in Houston, the Dallas Theater Center Repertory Company and The Centenary Playhouse in Shreveport.
After a successful acting career throughout the Arklatex, New York City and other places, Ms. Bozeman and husband Bill returned to her roots at Belmont in September 1991. With the help and talents of her beloved spouse, she organized The Sabine Parish and Shakespeare in Sabine and for 27 years gave back to the community she loved. Their original production of “A Christmas Carol” ran for 20 years, ending in December 2018.
Their productions in Sabine Parish included “Our Town,” “Miranda,” “Love Letters,” “Dracula,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Greater Tuna,” “The Proposal,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “See How They Run,” “The Women,” “The Mousetrap,” “Julius Caesar,” “The Corn is Green,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “The Member of the Wedding,” “Blithe Spirit,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Hamlet,” “The Dining Room,” “Othello,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The School for Scandal,” “The Three Sisters,” “Macbeth,” “The Winter’s Tale,” “Sylvia,” “As You Like It,” “Medea,” “27 Wagons Full of Cotton,” “A Phoenix Too Frequent,” “Teen Theatre Festival,” “Queen Lear” and “Little Mary Sunshine.”
Mrs. Bozeman has three siblings: James Richard Bozeman of Lafayette was a cardiovascular surgeon and died May 24, 2018. Martha Griffith is a retired schoolteacher who lives on the old homeplace near Belmont and is still going strong at 86. Robert Ray Bozeman worked for the Social Security office in Natchitoches for 35 years and now is in a nursing home in Houston near his son.
She has one son, Robert Charles Bozeman Rains, by her marriage to Charles Rains, who was a professor at Centenary College. Her son lives in Bluemont, VA and is retired from AOL. He holds a Doctor’s Degree in Music and taught at a college in Virginia. He is married to Kathline McKutchen and they have four sons.
Others to be honored at the Sabine Hall of Fame Banquet are Inductee Edith Palmer, Achievement Award – Otto O’Neil Meyers III, Accomplishment Award – Savanah and Siarah Hall, Good Citizen – Frances Hopkins and Special Recognition – Dale Skinner. Posthumous recognitions will go to Dr. Warren Founds and Coach Malvin Ogden.
Tickets are $50 per person and may be purchased at the office of Pete Abington, 1030 San Antonio Ave.; Nichols, 252 Elizabeth St.; and the office of Robert Gentry, 605 San Antonio Ave. Interested persons may also call (318) 256-4344 to reserve and pay for individual tickets or a table for eight.
The banquet starts at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, at St. Joseph’s Hall, 307 Hammond St. in Zwolle. Doors open at 6, dinner begins at 6:30 p.m., and the program starts at 7 p.m.
Event profits will benefit the Pink Sisters of Sabine breast cancer support services.