Church Mother, Devoted Mother and Grandmother, Daughter of Alabama, Mayor of Talbot Avenue
December 3, 1935 – October 23, 2026

Mildred Neal Weaver, 90, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, went home to be with the Lord on Friday, October 23, 2026, with her family at her side.

She was born December 3, 1935, in Shorterville, Alabama, to Wesley L. Neal and Fannie Lee Allen Neal, and grew up in the Shorterville community of Henry County, where she graduated from Henry County Training School. As a young woman in the early 1950s, she moved to Boston, settling first in Roxbury and, in 1965, in Dorchester, where she would make her home for more than forty years.

She worked at B.F. Goodrich, where she met Lucius Weaver; they were married in Boston on November 19, 1958, and from that union came her son, Jeffery. After returning to school, she went on to build a long career at New England Life Insurance Company, later acquired by MetLife, retiring as a senior policy change analyst.

Mildred was a woman of deep and abiding faith. For decades she was a devoted member of Little Zion Church of God in Christ in Dorchester, under Pastors James Darby and Sybil Dunwoody, where she served as a church mother and helped shape a generation of young people who came through its doors. She lived her life in service to God, and she was respected by all who knew her.

Above all, she was a mother. As a single parent, she worked hard to provide for her son, bought and kept her own home on Talbot Avenue, and saw him through his education with a pride she never hid. She introduced him to everyone she met as “my only son,” a title he will carry for the rest of his life. She was proud, fiercely independent, and gifted with numbers. Having come of age in the Jim Crow South, she built a life on her own terms in Boston, and she kept a table where family, neighbors, and friends were always welcome. Neighbors on Talbot Avenue called her the mayor, and she earned it. In all his years, she and her son were never apart at Christmas.

Family was the center of her world. She was devoted to her mother’s sisters in Boston and to her brothers and sisters and their children in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, who knew her simply as Aunt Sis. Nothing made her prouder than her grandsons, Kyle and Trent.

In 2010, as her health began to require more support, she moved to Ohio to be near her son and his family. There she grew close to her daughter-in-law, Tracey, who for sixteen years cared for her as though she were her own mother. For her last fifteen years she made her home at The Woodlands of Shaker Heights, where she was a steady, ever-present figure and made many dear friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her siblings, Willie Fred Clark (Ruth), Cenella Clark Hall, Rosia Lee Young (Eugene, Sr.), Robert Edward Neal, and Bobby J. Neal (Truman); her longtime companion, Henry Darget; and his daughter, Serena Darget.

She leaves to cherish her memory her son, Jeffery Jerome Weaver, and his wife, Tracey Forde Weaver, of Shaker Heights; her grandsons, Trent Christian Weaver of Florida and Kyle Jeffery Weaver of Georgia; her oldest niece, Sybil Young Nellon, with whom she shared a special bond; Henry’s children, Joanne Darget of Georgia and Mary Darget of Massachusetts; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. The family extends special gratitude to her longtime friend Nora Green, godmother to her son, for a lifetime of love, friendship, and encouragement.

The family also thanks the staff of The Woodlands of Shaker Heights for their loving care over the years, and Reserve Care Hospice for their compassion and comfort in her final days.