Obituaries

Martha Rose "Toadie" Greer arrived into this earthly world on December 14, 1943, in Dallas, Texas to mother Nita and father Luke Greer, and sister Patty Sue. She left us on December 20, 2025, on the eve of the Winter Solstice, at the age of 82. According to Martha, her nickname of "Toadie" came from hopping a lot as a child, however cousin John Paul remembers it was because she liked to pick up and play with horny toads while on visits to her paternal grandparents, The Greers, who lived in the small west Texas town of Rochester.

Martha grew up in Irving, Texas in a home built behind Nita's parents', the Vance’s. Martha's family home was unique and lovely with red brick floors and all pink appliances, as pink was her mother's favorite color. Martha's home was a fun place to be and a hub for both sides of the family to gather. Martha's father Luke had all the kids believing a Leprechaun lived in the backyard and showed us how Butch the squirrel would take peanuts out of his hand. He told long entertaining stories while Nita looked on from the kitchen mouthing every word to each story having heard them so often. The cookie jar was always full and you could always find a Dr. Pepper's waiting for you. Their family dog, Lady, roamed the red brick floors of their home and Nita always was cooking up something wonderful, including buttermilk chess pies. Martha and Patty Sue grew up together there in adjoining Jack and Jill rooms with huge, recessed bay windows, which you could sit in to play games, dolls, color, or draw.

Martha was very close to her cousins, aunts, and uncles who played a large role in her life. Martha and her Uncle Tom had an especially close connection and loved having long discussions about art, philosophy, books, well, pretty much anything. Uncle Tom was a grounding force for Martha during some of the difficult times in her life. Dorian and Lindslee have fond memories of overnight family stays in Irving and going on museum visits and treasure hunting that only could begin after Martha woke up at the crack of noon; so come to think of it, Martha also taught us patience. Martha's Aunt Iney and Aunt Sarah always brought the silliness, music and dancing (the Charleston and the Twist in particular) while her Uncle Frank and Uncle Tom spread their quiet kindness. Many memories were made together with cousins John Paul and Sandy, not only because they lived close by, but they also were closest in age to Martha. Martha's paintings hung throughout the family home and made their way into relatives’ homes too. She graduated from the University of Dallas with an Art Degree. Martha learned to live in the moment from how she was raised and spread that to others just by doing it.

Martha moved to St. Louis in 1969, following her good friend and fellow Texas native, Jim Pfaff. She began work as an Art Therapist at Hawthorn's Children Psychiatric Hospital, an inpatient and residential mental health treatment for children and adolescents, and she made fast friends with a group of like-minded social serving individuals of the time, and joined them in urban commune living in Lafayette Square’s Waverly Place in the mid-70’s.

A multi-media visual artist - painting, drawing and found material collage - Martha took up with fellow artists, musicians, and bohemians of the area and at every turn made friends for life with her easy conversation and genuine interest in others’ lives. She enjoyed an active social life, taking part in antique and junk store shopping, local women’s clothing exchanges and house parties, art fairs and opening receptions, Soulard Farmer’s Market days, and outdoor park festivals with diverse groups of friends. Martha loved music and dancing and spent many a late-night carousing about town, including at Burkhardt’s Oyster Bar, where she eventually met her future husband, bar doorman, taxicab driver and local poet, Bill Green, as they danced together at the bar’s fireplace hearth.

In 1980, Martha and a friend bought and split a 3-story fixer-upper shotgun home together in the Benton Park neighborhood, up the street from Hodak's chicken restaurant. After meeting Bill later that year, Bill moved in as well, and they were married a few years later in an intimate ceremony in her parent’s home in Irving, Texas.

In 1987, Bill and Martha moved to their new home a few blocks away, on Pestalozzi Street, near the Anheuser-Busch brewery, and settled there together for the next 35 years. From this home base, next door to the eclectic Venice Cafe, where Bill became doorman and poet-in-residence, they became established members of the artist community there, as well as luminaries in the cultural heart of Soulard and the City of St. Louis.

Martha was a gifted mystical spiritualist, with a reverence for Paganism, the occult, Voodooism and Christian religions, as well as the spiritual beliefs of native peoples of the Americas, Europe and Asia. She was a learner and practitioner of astrology - reading astrological birth charts of friends and family, with consult of guides and charts of the cosmic planetary cycles and degrees of alignments.

After Martha retired from Hawthorne, she continued her art therapy work part-time at Father Dunne’s Newsboy Home & Protectorate, as well as worked part-time for Everyday Circus performing palm readings at Beatnik Bob’s Elvis Trailer in the City Museum, and at private parties throughout the metropolitan area. Martha was such a talented and inspiring palmist, she was able to start her own business, Madame Rose, and secured a weekend summer residency reading palms in the Venice Cafe’s bar garden, and later at the Fortune Teller Bar on Cherokee Street.

Martha was devoted to her family - to her parents and her sister Patty, with their weekly marathon telephone calls - as well as to her many aunts, uncles and cousins, who all lived in Texas. And she was devoted to her husband Bill, and their rich and abundant late-night life - hosting weekly and sometimes nightly salons of buzzing discussions about art, politics, and popular culture, or just to watch the latest HBO series - with a carousel of friends and associates from all walks of life. And Martha especially enjoyed their many shared international travels - to Amsterdam for a Cannabis Cup, NYE in Paris, Dia de Muertos in Mexico City, kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland, and domestic adventures in the San Francisco/Bay area, Denver, Chicago, Kansas City and Southwest MO, and of course annual Holiday family gatherings in Texas.

Martha was a foodie and loved sushi and Kounter Kulture's Asian Fusion, and dining and getting take-out from the latest local restaurant or pop-up on the scene. She held court from her couch in the den or living room, among the maximalist and sometimes chaotic squalor of her junk store treasures-filled home, eating Fritos and chocolates with glasses of dark red wine. She would stroke a cat in her lap and despite the din of the always on television she would attentively listen and talk to those nearest her about the pesky retrograde of some impactful planet or some home repair contractor who wasn’t quite up to snuff, or the just the latest life news. She was a positive and loving life force, a listener and communicator, and a true friend to so many. She is deeply loved and will be missed.

Martha was preceded in death by her parents Juanita ‘Nita’ (nee Vance) (d. 1992) and Marion Luther ‘Luke’ Greer (d.1986), sister Patty Sue (nee Greer) McGarity (d. 2020), husband Bill Green (d. 2021), grandparents, aunts and uncles on both sides and several cousins. She is survived by five cousins and their families - John Paul [Suzanne] Knouse, Sandy [Donald] Morris, Lindslee [John] Kerr, Dorian [Patrick] Girard, Christy Radford [Doug] , chosen daughter and granddaughter Mae and Olivia Soule, dear longtime friend Jon Cournoyer, and so many dear dear friends in St. Louis and beyond, from all paths she walked.

A private funeral and burial service will be held Tuesday, December 30, 2025, at Bellefontaine Cemetery, 4947 W. Florissant Ave, St. Louis, MO 63115. A public memorial for friends will be held December 27, 2025, from 4-7 PM at the Venice Café, 1903 Pestalozzi St, St. Louis, MO 63118.

In lieu of flowers, make ART!