As soon as Thanksgiving was over, Mary Jane Houk’s Wellfleet home lit up in anticipation of Christmas. She carefully wrapped a string of lights around an evergreen tree that was a little too large for her living room and dusted off boxes of antique ornaments. Under the glow of the twinkling lights, her family gathered to decorate the tree.

“Her favorite holiday was Christmas, and to the day she died, she believed in Santa,” said her son, Adam.

A devoted mother, Mary died on July 16, 2025 shortly after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 84.

Mary was born on Aug. 25, 1940 in Brooklyn, N.Y. to the late Francis Xavier and Agnes Bruton. She attended Salve Regina University but never graduated. Instead, at 21, she left Brooklyn for Provincetown, where she worked as a waitress.

After one long shift, Mary spotted a boy with mousy brown hair and a kind smile behind the bar at the Lobster Pot — it was Jerry Houk, who would become a Wellfleet selectman and her husband of 63 years.

Though Mary meant to stay only one summer in Provincetown, she married Jerry and they had two children before leaving the Cape for 15 years in Brooklyn.

In the city, Mary made sure her children’s world was filled with possibility.

“She took me to see The Nutcracker at Radio City, and then got me ballet lessons,” said her daughter, Holly. “She took me to see the Russian gymnasts at Madison Square Garden, and that started years of gymnastics for me at the YMCA. She was just always there.”

Mary filled her children’s closets with hand-sewn clothes that she designed. Some of her most notable pieces include a pair of leather pants for seven-year-old Adam and a jeans jacket with rhinestones and buttons that read “Impeach Nixon” for Holly.

After the family moved to Wellfleet in 1978, Mary worked at the Blue Heron Gallery before founding the Sandpiper Gallery on Commercial Street. She renovated the old red building and filled it with paintings of flowers, seaside villages, and her own macramé art.

After retiring, Mary worked for the town as an attendant at Gull Pond, doing crossword puzzles, handing out beach stickers, and catching up with neighbors. Over the years, she watched Wellfleet children grow up and return with children of their own.

Mary served as president of the Alzheimer’s Association in Wellfleet, advocating for those affected by the disease after caring for her mother-in-law who suffered from it — an experience that gave her a deep understanding of its toll.

She is survived by her husband, Jerry Houk of Wellfleet; her daughter, Holly Carlo, and her sons, Nick and Louis and wife Shannon; her son, Adam Houk, and wife Betty and their children, AJ and Emma; her sister, Ann Brierton; and nine nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her brother, Francis Xavier Bruton Jr., and her sister Margaret Ward.

A celebration of Mary’s life will be held at PB Boulangerie in Wellfleet from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 26.