Mary Lou Coleman Bennington, 84, joined her beloved husband Paul on June 16, 2015. Mary Lou will be deeply missed by her brother Isaac Coleman; her children, Paul Bennington and his wife Sherrie, Linda Miller and her husband Grover; her grandchildren Jamie Hambrick and wife Priya Jain, Emily Bennington and husband Johnny Tugwell, Stacey Losh and husband Greg, and Bryson Miller and wife Brittany; and her great-grandchildren Kristen Hough and husband Ryan; Corey and Cole Kirkpatrick; Alesha, Katie, and Kaleb Losh; Christian and Liam Tugwell; Brayden Miller; and Milo Hambrick Jain. She leaves behind as well the innumerable friends and family she touched over the course of her long and blessed life. In addition to her husband, Mary Lou was preceded in death by her parents, Ted and Gatha Coleman, and siblings John Edwards, Emogene, Malcolm, Virginia, Keith and Kenneth, and Betty Ann. Mary Lou was born in Green Creek, Roane County. She graduated from South Charleston High School in 1949 and met her future husband, Paul, on a blind date. Except for a brief period in Virginia where her husband was stationed as a Marine, she spent her entire life in West Virginia. Mary Lou worked as a secretary at Watts Elementary for over 25 years (and saw her children and three oldest grandchildren through their educations there), before transferring to Shoals Elementary, where she retired after many years of dedicated service to the Kanawha County School System. She maintained an active life participating in the congregations and ministries at Grace Covenant Presbyterian and then Emmanuel Baptist Church. She also enjoyed knitting and quilting, sharing family and friend photos on Facebook seconds after they were posted, and playing Words With Friends or sharing birthday greetings with many of the new friends she met during her travels. Many of the families throughout the Kanawha Valley have treasured the things she created-keeping warm in the sweaters or quilts she knitted, dancing in recitals and celebrating Halloween in costumes she made, and proudly displaying her cross-stitching around their homes. And in the family, you just knew the significant other wasn't official until Mary Lou made a Christmas stocking for him or her. Family was always the most important thing to Mary Lou. She was a woman who took her first trip overseas to India at the age of 81 just because her grandchild was getting married there. In recent years, she took greatest joy in her great-grandchildren, and spent her time much as she did for their parents and their parents before them-reading to them, hugging them, and taking enormous pride in them. Mary Lou died after a very brief battle with acute leukemia. Visitation with family and friends will be held at Cunningham Parker Johnson Funeral Home on Saturday June 20th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by funeral services presided over by Reverend Ronald Stoner. Her final resting place will be Sunset Memorial Park in South Charleston.