John and Maryann Dumbleton are transplants from two big cities, New York and Washington, DC. They were born and raised in Brooklyn and the Bronx, New York, respectively. They met in 1958 while John was a cadet at the New York Maritime College, about 2 miles from Maryann’s home in Throggs Neck. John was 18 and Maryann 16. They married in 1963, and in 1964 made a career move to Washington, DC and lived in Springfield, VA for 40 years. John worked as an engineer for the US Maritime Administration of the federal government for most of those years and retired in 2000. Maryann taught 3rd grade in Fairfax County, VA, before and after their two sons were born.
“After Maryann retired, we decided we wanted to be near our grandchildren, and so we became full-fledged Texans! Our son John lives in Southlake so in 2007, we decided to make our home in Trophy Club . We are very happy with our decision. When it came time to find a church to attend, it turned out to be more difficult than we thought. As practicing Roman Catholics, we started our search with Catholic churches in Grapevine, Colleyville, and Keller. For numerous reasons, none of these churches seemed right to us. Then we tried several churches nearby in Trophy Club (at least it would be convenient), but the differences from the Catholic Church were just too great. Since I attended an Episcopal church as a youngster, we tried St. Laurence Church in Southlake as well as St. Martin-in-the-Fields. We finally found a church to call home at St. Martin’s. We find everything at St. Martin’s just perfect. From the friendliness of the parishioners to the dedication and warmth of the staff, to the activities available to participate in, St. Martin’s is everything we could have hoped for. I have recently begun to participate in Bible Study and Spiritual Awareness activities and have found them to be exactly what I was looking for. All in all, we are excited to be members of St. Martin-in-the- Fields!”