Our dear mother, sister, grandmother, and aunt Geraldine (Gerry) Clanton Mayes, 89, of Franklin, Tennessee, passed from this life to heaven on July 12, 2021, at NHC Cool Springs Aspen Arbor Memory Care in Franklin, Tennessee, surrounded by her family.
Gerry was born on April 24, 1932, in Bedford County Tennessee to the late Cecil Rhodes and Martene Henslee Clanton. She graduated from Shelbyville Central High School in 1950 and moved to Nashville to work at National Life and Casualty Insurance Company in order to help support her family back home. She married Robert (Bob) Mayes in 1954 and raised their three girls with him, first in Nashville and then in Franklin, Tennessee.
Gerry loved her family, her friends, her church, Triune Baptist, and the job from which she retired at the Tennessee Baptist Convention, where she was Executive Assistant to the Director of Convention Ministries. She loved to garden, cook, read, travel and spend time with her family, especially her grandchildren.
Gerry was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 65 years, Bob Mayes; her daughter, Melanie Rhea Mayes; and her brother Cecil Rhodes Clanton Jr.
She is survived by her daughters Marcia Dean Mayes and Valerie Mayes Petschulat and husband David; her grandchildren Geneva Petschulat and husband Paul Attea, Sam Malick-Petschulat and wife Kaitlin Malick-Petschulat, Robert Petschulat, Jack Petschulat and partner Mia Otting, Kaitlin Mayes and fiancé Chip Brothers, and Molly Mayes and partner Jesus Segoviano; her great-grandson Max Attea; sisters Madelyn Leto, Marilyn Smothers, and Carolyn Woodfin; and many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
Donations in Gerry’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at alz.org or by check to:
Alzheimer’s Association
P.O. Box 96011
Washington, DC 20090-6011
“Her children shall rise up and call her blessed”. Proverbs 31:28
