Mary Green was born as Mary Banks to Walter Banks and Carliwease Williams on April 22, 1934, in Montgomery West Virginia. Even though her beginnings were humble, this would not stop her from living a very full life. She has one sister, Geraldine Carter (now Easley) and the two are remarkably close growing up, even after they were separated due to caregivers and after her sister joined her in Ohio. During her formative years, she would be taken in by the Rogers family and raised by them before she moved to Cleveland where she attended Glenville High School to earn her high school diploma.

Once graduating from high school, she would undergo training to be a nurse practitioner lending her kindness, faith, generous spirit, and dedication to helping the injured and ill. It was during this time that she would start a long and successful career working at University Hospitals. During the beginning of her career, she would meet Lawrence Harold Lloyd and would have two beautiful daughters, Deborah and Marcia.

From an incredibly young age, Mary walked with God and was steadfast in her faith. She had compassion for others and a passion to be of service to her fellow man. This can be seen in her constant display of patience, kindness, and willingness to help those in need. This same faith can be seen in how she lived her life. After retirement, she joined church committees, volunteered spreading the word and ensuring people knew who her God was.

To those who knew her, Mary was full of life. She enjoyed going to church, sewing, collecting knick-knacks from estate sales and secondhand shops, listening to music, cooking, and spending time with family and friends. She loved every color in God’s spectrum, except for brown (she had a lot to say about brown). During her life, Mary also enjoyed traveling to places that interested her, visiting places like the Bahamas, Hawaii, and Canada. Mary was also a fan of the theatre and had traveled to New York to see a Broadway play. Mary was a Motown Queen and loved all the Motown hits and classics. If you were lucky, you could catch her singing she would sing Country Roads by John Denver, one of the state songs of West Virginia.

She also enjoyed visiting estate and secondhand shops looking for interesting things to add to her collection, and if Mary saw anything resembling an elephant or an angel, she would add it to her collection. If anyone had been to her home, you know she was especially fond of elephants and what they represented. For Mary, the elephant is a symbol of strength, wisdom, and patience. These are all traits that she carried with her until the end. Along with elephants, Mary was also partial to lilies and what they symbolized: beauty, and God’s loving care and provision. She always believed that more than anything else, that God had her. He would take care of all.

To family members, she often had a joke to lift a spirit, or a memory she had. To her family was the key to love, and she had a lot of love to give. Mary is preceded by her parents, the ex-husband and father of her two girls (Lawrence Harold Lloyd), and her second husband Andrew Green who she was married to for over 20 years. Mary survived by her two daughters (Deborah Jean Lloyd and Marcia Kim Lloyd), her only grandchild (Alexandria Kim Lloyd-Preston), her sister, Geraldine Easley, nieces and nephews, and a bevy of great nieces and nephews. Today we gather to celebrate her life, not mourn her death. Mary Green was the life of the party and would have wanted us to rejoice that she is no longer in pain and has reached peace.

Thank you so much for joining our family on the USS Mary Green Cruise of Life. This has been a journey we are grateful to have been a part of. Mary, Mama and Grandma (Mee-maw), we will see you once again. We love you.