With great sadness, we announce the passing of our mother, Mary Elizabeth (Satterfield) Cook.

She was also known as Sissy, and to others as Mary or Mary Beth. Depending on when you met her in her life. She always called Alabama home, but also spent time living in Kentucky, Texas, Michigan, and California.

To us, wherever she lived, we knew her as mom.

She was born on February 10, 1948, in Huntsville, Alabama. She died in Huntsville on June 25, 2026.

She loved Alabama football her whole life. When Coach Bear Bryant died, she cried and raced out to buy a newspaper with a headline about it to keep. She was an even bigger fan of Coach Saban.

Mom loved music almost as much as Alabama football. When we were growing up, there was always music in our house. Kenny Rogers, the Pointer Sisters, Alabama, Dolly Parton…those were a few favorites. One of her prized possessions was an autograph she got when she met Dolly. She framed it and hung it on her wall proudly.

She was the type of person who framed autographs of people she loved. Because she wanted to celebrate what she loved. Our mother loved a celebration.

We have so many memories of the ways she celebrated when we were little. She sewed our Halloween costumes and dresses for special occasions. She created traditions that we carried on for years, like reading “The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever” aloud together every Christmas season. We also made popcorn and cranberry garland together and put it on our Christmas tree. There was an Easter Bunny cake every year of course. And birthdays were a big deal! She planned parties with elaborate cakes that she lovingly designed and baked (i.e., ice cream cone cake, Mickey Mouse cakes, etc.), even honoring half-birthdays if we wanted to celebrate.

Over the past few days, remembering all of the magic, we realized our mother was Pinterest before there was ever such a thing. She was so creative. From those early cake designs and party favors for our birthdays, making things, painting things, bedazzling things, arranging flowers, decorating houses, recovering furniture…she did it all. The bigger, the sparklier…she was definitely a more-is-more person when it came to crafts, interior design, and clothing.

She brought her creative talents to every job she had in her life—whether it was stay-at-home mom extraordinaire, a secretary, a Mary Kay sales rep, an associate at the candle store Brightworld, an up and coming part of the ManPower temp agency, a substitute teacher, an educator, a volunteer caregiver, and more….she used her creative talents and ability to build relationships with all kinds of different folks to each position.

Mom was a gifted writer too. She would leave poems and notes for us before she left the house. She wrote about her feelings with great depth and emotional intelligence that you might not have guessed a woman who loved to bedazzle would have.

Our mother was a combination of empathy, compassion, joy, righteousness, fear, love, anger, zest for life, and complicatedness. A combustible combination of light and dark and everything in between. There were messy, misunderstood moments.

Mom fought hard through heartbreak, chronic illness, and getting sober. She went through a lot.

Some of you might remember her as the friend you made in Alcoholics Anonymous. The one friend who shared stories that made you cry but also wrote you funny cards and gave you floral arrangements and wreaths she made. The friend who was fun to shop with, even if she had you paged five times over the loudspeaker when she was ready to leave.

Some of you will remember her as a military wife with her second husband, Bob, in California. She was the friend who loved entertaining and making her famous “7 Layer Dip” for her pals. The friend who enjoyed exploring and learning about places she had never been in the area and was up for anything.

Some of you will remember her as the funny one in the group, the one with boundless energy and creativity. That woman with the great smile and jet-black hair who played tennis at the club in Michigan. The friend who could do so many different things—have small roles in community theater productions, co-lead a Girl Scout Troop, advocate for seat belt laws after a terrible car accident, and volunteer at her kids’ elementary school. She might be most famous for choreographing a fifth-grade dance number to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It was the hit of the Woodland Elementary talent show in 1984.

Some of you will remember her as part of the cutest couple at Lee High School in 1968 with her boyfriend Randy Smith. That’s our dad. They had a pretty great love story for a while.

Some of you will remember the teenager who loved to twirl the baton. The majorette who wore sequins uniforms and boots with tassels. Who twirled triumphantly in the Orange Bowl Parade in 1965. (She twirled her baton for the rest of her life if asked. In the 1980s, she would even reenact her Orange Bowl Parade routine if you asked her to!)

There are still some people who will remember her as Clifton and Leona Satterfield’s feisty, funny daughter. Nancy (Mitchell) Morris’ kid sister, Sissy. Her parents and sister have been gone for quite a while. She talked often about missing them. Mom loved them deeply.

Even though it was complicated for us, and maybe some of you, we want to and will remember Mom as vivacious, creative, and fun. A woman who loved to sing and laugh. One of the most consistent things about Mom all of these years was her appreciation of nature. When we were kids, she would pull the car over (even on the highway during one of our road trips from Michigan to Alabama) to point out a beautiful tree with pink blossoms in the springtime. She would ooh and ahhh over the fall foliage. She got such a kick out of the snow in Michigan and took so many pictures of snow on pine trees. She would remind everyone to “look at that blue sky” or that beautiful sunset.

We are having a memorial service later this summer, but if you loved her or loved people who loved her, here are a few things we hope you might do….

• If you see an amazing sunset or a tree blooming, you will be inspired to stop your car, get out, and appreciate the beautiful parts of being alive right at that moment.
• Bedazzle something, add some flair to a shirt that gets you noticed in a crowd.
• Sing the Alabama song “My Home’s in Alabama” as loud as you can while you drive with the windows down. Or grab a spoon and belt out Kenny Rogers’ classic “The Gambler” with wild abandon in your kitchen.
• Go dancing.
• Open up a Diet Dr. Pepper and make a toast to simple pleasures.
• Or this fall, root for Alabama football. (We realize this might be a difficult one for some.)

No matter who she was to you or how you remember her, we hope you will hold love in your heart for her life.

Mary was:

A daughter to: Leona and Clifton Satterfield

A sister and sister-in-law to: Nancy Mitchell Morris and Ken Morris

An aunt to: Matt, Melissa and Amanda

A grandma to: Peyton, Charlotte, Lucy, Caden, JT, and Wade

A mom to us: Dana, Angie, and Jeff

Berryhill Funeral Home is assisting the family.