Faye (Smith) Easterling

FAYE (SMITH) EASTERLING, age 77 and a resident of Gadsden, AL since 1964, succumbed to COVID-19 on the morning of July 18, 2020. She was born in Jemison, AL on October 10, 1942; the daughter of the late Richard H. Smith and the late Hazel Zorn Smith.

Her sisters: Carol, Linda, and Teresa and her brother, Mardie grew up on Smith Road. She played basketball for Jemison High School, graduating in 1961. She met her future husband, Royce Easterling of Clanton, soon after graduating and working in Birmingham. The two of them eloped in 1964, driving to Elba, AL to be married. They built their first and only house in Gadsden in 1965 while expecting a son. Five years later a daughter came along. Fay loved being a full-time wife and mother. She devoted herself to family, church, and Eastern Star; making sure her kids went “down home” to see their grandparents, aunts, uncles,, and cousins often. She let her kids have strawberry pie for dinner once or twice. Her yard was always the one where kids gathered to play until dark, and neighbors came by to play rook.

When the kids started school she went back to work part-time in sales; and 25 years later, when she’d learned the name of everyone in town, she proudly retired from Food World Grocery. Faye was generous, loved deeply, laughed loudly, and was a fierce advocate for her family; never letting them forget she always had their back.

After her 14 year battle with vascular dementia, she is survived by: Loving Husband, Royce Easterling of Gadsden; Son, Keith Easterling of Atlanta; Daughter, Stacey Smith of Springville; Grandson, Karsten Smith of Springville; Sister, Teresa Smith of Jemison; Brother, Mardie Smith of Jemison; and many nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at 2:00pm from the Chapel of Ellison Memorial Funeral Home in Clanton with Rev. Joyce Williamson officiating.

Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.

Burial will follow in the Pates Chapel Baptist Cemetery in Thorsby, AL.

In lieu of flowers, please make contributions in Faye’s memory to the Dementia Society of America P.O. Box 600 Doylestown, PA 18901 or at www.DemitiaSociety.org/Donate

Final care and arrangements entrusted to the Ellison Memorial Funeral Home of Clanton, AL.

www.EllisonMemorialFuneralHome