Mary Lou Mozier

Mary Louise Mozier, 88, of Overland Park, Kansas, passed away peacefully in her home on March 12, 2026 after a brief illness. Mary Lou was born in Saint Louis, Missouri on 21 July 1937. In 1940 she moved to Troy, Mo. with her parents Walter Julius and Clara Marie (nee Price) Curt and older brother Walter L. Curt. As a young girl, Mary Lou enjoyed the freedom of a quiet small town when her parents opened a Western Auto franchise in downtown Troy. She attended Sacred Heart Catholic elementary school and Buchanan High School. There she met and fell in love with Johnnie Mozier in the high school band, as they both played the alto saxophone. She graduated from high school in the spring of 1955 and was married in December of that same year. The newlyweds relocated to a mobile home in Columbia, MO, where Mary Lou supported her husband John through veterinary school at the University of Missouri. Three years later her first son John Jr. was born. She moved with her husband for his first job in veterinary practice to Goshen, IN where a second son Ned was born, followed by a two year stint in Missouri for her husband’s job in a veterinary clinic, and eventually to Kent, Washington where her husband John served in the Army Veterinary Corps in Seattle. It was there that another son David was born. In 1964 the family settled in Leawood, Kansas for a few years and subsequently purchased a small farm acreage in the country just outside the little town of Stanley, Kansas. Mary Lou utilized her keen sense of design and decoration to build the home that suited all the needs of her growing family. In less than a year her last son, Matthew, was born and her family was complete. As her husband John pursued his career, Mary Lou took care of the home and the needs of four rambunctious boys who tried her patience. She established and managed a strawberry farm business which quickly became popular as the suburban expansion grew. Having never had the opportunity to pursue higher education, Mary Lou began taking college courses at Johnson Country Community College and eventually completed her education at Kansas University with a B.S. In Education. She was a high school substitute teacher when time permitted as she finished raising the boys. She also nurtured her natural talent in home decoration and the antique business. Mary Lou loved finding special antiques at garage and estate sales. She restored, repurposed, and re-sold her much-loved acquisitions at booths in local antique stores and enjoyed working at her dear friends’ antique store, The Gift Tree in Overland Park, Kansas for many years. In later years she and her friends enjoyed extended trips to antique shows and national flea markets as far away as Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Another of her passions was watching her four boys play varsity basketball in the newly formed Blue Valley High School. She nurtured her love for Victorian English literature and amassed an impressive collection of early George Eliot volumes. Once all her boys left the home and embarked on their individual journeys, Mary Lou and John moved a bit farther south to a farm near Louisburg, KS where she created a beautiful home and was able to indulge her wish for a proper English style garden and finely cultivated flower gardens. Mary Lou had a love for flowering plants and gardening that was evident to anyone who visited her gardens. She truly had a green thumb! In 2022 they moved to a town home in Overland Pak near their old property and home. Mary Lou loved sitting on the porch with her beloved dog Candi, a King Charles Cavalier, greeting neighbors as they walked their dogs. She dearly loved planting small garden beds and flowers in pots. At the very end of life, she excitedly anticipated her spring planting and itched to get seeds and plants in the ground Although she suffered from memory issues in later years, Mary Lou never failed to put in a garden and brighten the neighborhood with flowers.

Mary Lou was Christened in the Catholic church as a young girl, and as an adult, gave her heart to the Lord at a service in the Troy Holiness Church in 1954. After moving to Kansas in 1964, she and her family attended the Church of God (Holiness) for several years. There she made many friends, who are still friends today. In about 1990, she and her husband, John, began attending Olathe College Church of the Nazarene where they became members. The Ambassador bible class there became very important to her with many fellow Christians.

Mary Lou was preceded in death by her father Walter Julius Curt, her mother Clara Marie Curt, a brother Walter L. Curt, and a grand-daughter Emily Elise Mozier. She is survived by her husband John Owen Mozier and four sons and their wives: John Owen Mozier, Jr. (m. Nancy Parsons); Ned Michael Mozier (m. Diane Schaper); David Mark Mozier (m. Jill Warnasch); and Matthew Curt Mozier (m. Andrea Dreiling). Mary Lou is survived by eight grandchildren, Lukas Mozier, Amelia Mozier, Caitlin Yang, Hannah Grooms, Dylan Mozier, Suzannah Mozier, Tommy Mozier, Ella Mozier and Nina Mozier. She is survived by seven great grandchildren: Owen and Natalie Mozier; Miyah and Presley Mozier; and Ian, Archer and Freya Yang.

A funeral service will be held at the College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe, KS on Tuesday, the 17th of March 2026. Visitation will be at 10 a.m. followed by a service at 11:00 a.m. The following day, a graveside ceremony will be held at the Old Alexandria Cemetery north of Troy, MO at 11:00 a.m. on the 18th of March 2026.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Emily Mozier Memorial Scholarship Fund at MidAmerica Nazarene University.