Deacons of Greenforest 
 
Tanya Tariner Valencia Flournoy 
Nicole White 
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The family acknowledges with immense gratitude, the many prayers, telephone calls, visits, gifts, and other acts of kindness that have been of considerable comfort to us. May God bless you richly for these expressions during our time of need. 
- The Family- 
 
-Final Arrangements Entrusted To- 
Gregory B. Levett fs:r Sons Funeral Homes fs:r Crematory, Inc. 
 
Aondale-Sco<t<:l:tle Chapel 351 N. Clarwdon Avenue 
Scoc(ttM)~9~~500J0079 
 
South DeJ<;llb Chapel 43-!7 Fut Shoals Parl<way 
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Gwinnm Chapel 914 Scenic Highwa.lQo 
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Rockdale ChajXl 1999 Highw1y 138, S.E. 
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"A Family Saving Families \Vorldwide" www.levettfuneralhome.com 
 
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www.lan ha u rgoods.com 
 
Saturday, February 6, 2016 l:OOp.m. 
Green Forest Community Baptist' Church 3250 Rainbow Drive 
~"tt;~(e!!ll ,..._~_ -. ....:..._,.. ._ Decatur, Georgia 30034 
Re . Dennis W. Mitchell, Senior Pastor 
J 
Rev. Herman Cody, Officiating 
 
 It was 19 55 when I learned the last stanza of this poem and knew then that 
I wanted it to be a part of my obituary. 
THANATOPSIS 
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves 
to that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave afnight, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach th grave Like one who wraps the drapery of h1s coach About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 
My Promise of Marriage 
As I look back today on all that we shared, there's nothing I'd want to miss, Not one smile, not one frown, not one up, not one down, 
Not one word, not one touch, not one kiss. For it took everything, all the goods 
and bads and the just-in-betweens put together, to make you and me what we will always be55 years, and forever, Oliver 
 
She was a summa cum laude from Southern University's Class of 1961, and would draw out each Latin syllable just so you knew. It means "with highest distinction" and speaks not only to how Gloria Dean Yearby Maxie graduated college, but how she lived out her 76 years on Earth. 
The first girl born to Henry Newman and Willie Lee (Nazareth Carrington) Yearby in Clarks, LA, and the third of nine children, Gloria had to grow up fast after losing her mother at a young age. That fed a stubborn independent streak in which she would do what she supposedly couldn't. Her artwork around the house says so. The tax-preparing business she began in 1977, instead of working for H&R Block, proclaimed as much. 
A member of Decatur's Greenforest Baptist Church, Gloria believed in prayer, if not long prayer, blessing her food with the Bible's shortest verse -- John 11:35, 'Jesus wept" -- and then often shortening even that to "He wept." 
During her 55-year marriage to a valedictorian engineer from Pelican, Oliver Dell Maxie, she was "Doll" and he was "Dear." They had two sons, Oliver Dell Maxie Jr. and Osric Darryl Maxie, and a daughter, Stephanie Diane Maxie Gunter. Oliver Jr. (1962) and Stephanie (1968-2011) predeceased her, as did her brothers, Benny (194 7-1974), Calvin (1938-2001), Charles (1948-2004) and William (1937-2012). 
Blunt-spoken, she would lovingly admonish the kids who would reach adulthood not to be stupid all their lives. The even more direct "KILL HIMTT" -- delivered at ear-splitting level -- let you know it was football season, aimed at TV gladiators threatening the Cowboys, Raiders or beloved Southern. 
Once, she got so engrossed in a Bayou Classic, she tore a rotator cuff. When she lived in New Orleans, bluntness brought her dirty looks when she blurt out her disdain for the Saints. 
She faced mortality just as matter-of-factly and is survived by: her husband, Oliver; son, Darryl; grandsons, Michael Davis and Jalen Gunter; granddaughter, Janay Davis; and a newborn great-grandson, Jace. Also left to cherish her memory are: two brothers, Jimmy Yearby of Seattle, WA and Bobby Yearby of Castro Valley, CA; and two sisters, Maxine Moore of Baton Rouge, LA, and Ann Johnson of Shreveport, LA. 
 
Intennent  Kennedy Memorial Gardens 
2500 River Road Ellenwood, Georgia 30294 
Repast 
Greenforest Community Baptist Church 3250 Rainbow Drive 
Decatur, Georgia 30034