Honoring . . .
Marie Banister - Lifeline's Founding Volunteer

Marie Banister, volunteer known as "the pillow lady".
By RUTH RENDON

Marie Soehner Banister, a longtime volunteer at the Texas Medical Center who became known as "the pillow lady" for the items she made for patients, has died. She was 84.

"I don't know how many thousands of hours she accumulated volunteering," said Banister's friend Earl Linder, an elder at Southwest Central Church of Christ. "Her primary concern was M.D. Anderson."

After years of counseling and helping patients at the Medical Center, Banister approached elders of her church, then called the Southwest Church of Christ.

"She began to talk to us of the need for a chaplain to represent the Church of Christ (at the Medical Center). The elders decided it would be a good idea," Linder said.

Banister's idea was shared with other Houston-area Church of Christ congregations. All agreed to support the Lifeline Chaplaincy ministry, which, Linder said, has since expanded to the Dallas area and soon will expand to Austin.

"The whole idea came from Marie," he said.

Banister volunteered at the Medical Center until about two years ago when her health started to fail and she went to live in a nursing home.

Linder said he first met Banister and her late husband, Harold, in 1962. At the time, Marie Banister already was volunteering.

Seeing so many patients with IVs in their arms, Banister started asking women to bring her their discarded nylons. Banister cut the washed nylons into small pieces and used them as stuffing to make pillows. The pillows were used by patients to rest their arms while on an IV.

"I'd say she gave out a million pillows," Linder said.

Banister and her twin sister, Marge, were born to Charles F. Soehner and Mattie Lee Scheible in Armel, Colo., on June 22, 1923.

After graduating from high school in California, Banister worked as a secretary in San Francisco. She met her future husband there. The two later moved to Houston.

Banister died Tuesday. She is survived by daughter Mary Drehsel of Heidelberg, Germany; sisters Marge Qualls of Colorado Springs, Hazel Youeve of Denver and Charline Yerein and Wilma Lou Bryant, both of Placerville, Calif.; brother, Hilding Soehner of Winslow, Ariz.; four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

The family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Southwest Central Church of Christ, 4011 W. Belfort.

Funeral services will follow at the church, with burial at Memorial Oak Cemetery.

From the HoustonChronicle.com

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