Mary Frances Hickman

Mary Frances (Sagal) Hickman, 86, of Keyser, West Virginia, passed away August 5, 2026.

Her funeral mass will take place at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, Keller, TX, August 21st, and her interment will occur at a later date at the Dallas-Fort Worth Veterans National Cemetery.

Mary Frances was born July 24, 1940 in Keyser, West (“by God”) Virginia, and was raised there, as the second of seven siblings in a Catholic family. To earn extra money she would work the lunch time rush at local diners (the Round House and the Chat N Chew) and then return to school. Following graduation from Keyser High School in 1958, and with her experience looking after siblings and many relatives, she attended the Winchester Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Winchester, Virginia.

While there, and because the US Army had a ‘friends join together’ recruitment program, she and great friend Elaine Egan Muller signed up to join the Army Nursing Corps, and they commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants with a year remaining in school. After graduating in 1961, Mary Frances unfortunately finished her state RN nursing test after Elaine, and the Army decided to separately send them to Fort Bliss, Texas, to complete induction training. This infuriated Mary Frances so much she apparently was moments from calling the Pentagon.

Good luck followed, and they travelled together, along with Elaine’s big pooch Sasha, to their first assignment at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Shortly after arriving, while chasing Sasha on the loose, Mary Frances met her polar opposite in a calm, laidback Lieutenant Carlos Wayne Hickman, who had a dry sense of humor. Not surprising, Elaine met Carlos’ fellow lieutenant friend Mike. After whirlwind romances, both nurses were soon married, both became pregnant together, and both were promptly thrown out of the Army (per the rules then). Obviously, the two couples became lifelong friends.

Mary Frances and Carlos went on to raise three beautiful daughters Carla, Debbie, and Annie. Considering she grew up with many siblings, raising three daughters, all with very different personalities, could still be a challenge at times. Carla, the entertainer, is loud and outgoing and sadly born with no filter. Debbie shares her father’s quirky sense of humor while keeping a tight grip on her middle child credentials as the family martyr. Annie, always the baby, and the “smart one”, somehow managed to wheedle that into a lot of extra freedom with very little oversight once that other 2 were out of the house.

The family lived around the globe, to assignments in Fort Belvoir, VA; Walla Walla, WA; Fort Leavenworth, KS; Bitburg and Stuttgart, Germany; Sacramento, CA; Fort Leonard Wood, MO; Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; and finally, Dallas, TX, where Carlos retired from the Army and they remained living in Carrollton.

After this, Mary Frances and Carlos travelled extensively on cruises and enjoyed traveling to see their daughters and their families. To keep busy and out of each others’ hair, she kept active with the girls’ lives, hobbies, and homemaking (and a little politics), while he built the grandchildren heirlooms in his work shop; although she feared an imminent ER visit, with missing limbs, at any moment.

Growing up in large working class single-income family gave her a talent for being “thrifty”. Mary Frances never met a coupon she didn’t love. She got sideswiped by a car one time in her mad rush to get a $1 coupon back on early video returns. Carlos claimed for years after that she drove the car into a ditch to get a buck back. Her relentless quest to always spend all her “Kohls Cash” took her into Kohls so often she became close friends with all the ladies that worked there. They even asked her to join their monthly Keeno group. Customers thought she worked there and asked her for assistance or where to find particular items. She would gladly help them then go on her merry way. Price matching store ads to get the best price was her superpower.

She will be remembered for her endless dedication to family, and as a true patriot, proud West Virginian, and an avid Texas A&M University fan (whoop!), given the many Aggie family graduates: husband (2 degrees), daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren with two more currently in attendance. She kept the Aggie War Hymn at the ready on her phone so that she could blast it out whenever or wherever she felt like it, whether you liked it or not.

Mary Frances will reunite with her husband Carlos in interment and for eternity, while she is survived by her brother Joe Sagal; sisters Barbara Ravenscroft and Kathy Finnell; daughters Carla Massee, Debbie Olmos, Ann Marie Montgomery; grandchildren Michael, Joshua, and Mara Massee; Emily and Air Force Captain Molly Olmos; Ally, Grace, and Ella Montgomery; and great-grandson Luca Massee.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to the Dementia Society of America, supporting patient assistance, family education, and research.