Family, friends and coworkers gathered around as Mary Alice Bowser's son Tanner Bowser dug a shovel into the damp ground and removed a rich pile of earth.
SERVE, Inc. broke ground Friday afternoon on what will become the Mary Alice McCray Bowser Memorial Monarch Habitat, a garden honoring an employee who died in a car accident last July. She was 44.
"I think it's a fantastic way to honor her," said Lucas Bowser, Mary Alice's older son. "She was interested in native wildflowers, so she'd love the pollinator planting and all the forbes."
According to her mother, Cathy McCray, Mary Alice went to high school in Fulton and was involved in the arts. She had a devoted husband, Randy, and two sons. And her true love was helping other people.
"She cared about other people - that's why she loved working at SERVE," McCray said. "She felt she'd been in their shoes and was now in a better place."
Mary Alice spent three years at SERVE and, according to Executive Director Steve Mallinckrodt, she touched many lives in that time.
"A garden seemed like the perfect thing to remember Mary Alice," Mallinckrodt said. "It's something that gives life and something that renews life."
Her coworkers and friends remember her fondly, too.
"Mary Alice was awesome, there's just no two ways about it," said Peg Dzicek, RSVP program director. "My first day here, she was the first person to make sure I was OK all day."
"I've never met a kinder person," added Kim Barnes, president of The Callaway Bank. "She never had a bad day."
Mallinckrodt said the Fulton Master Gardeners Club has volunteered to help plan and plant the garden, which will feature butterfly weed, milkweed, redbud trees, spicebushes and other native and butterfly-friendly plants. Many of the plants have been donated by area businesses and individuals, Mallinckrodt said.
It will be certified as a monarch habitat by the Missouri Department of Conservation, he added.