One of Houston’s major philanthropists of the past half-century, Mary Frances Bowles Couper, died Aug.
14 at her Memorial-area home. She was 95. Couper and her husband, the late Fred Thomson Couper Jr., donated their 18-acre estate known as Piney Point to the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in 1999. The property was part of Stephen F. Austin’s 1824 land grant, and Couper had envisioned it as a wellness and spiritual center, said a friend, Linda McReynolds. Memorial Hermann is “actively exploring opportunities for the land,” spokeswoman Ann Brimberry said. Born in Beaumont in 1914, Couper moved at an early age to Houston with her parents, Edna and William V. Bowles. Her father was president of Bowles Oil Production Co. She attended The Kinkaid School and San Jacinto High School and in 1931 earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas. In 1943, she married Fred Couper, a Houston attorney who died in 2000.
Widely respected for her philanthropy and knowledge of the arts, Couper avoided the spotlight, friends said.