Sugg

Mary Olive Spivey Sugg was born on June 29, 1932.

She lost her valiant eight-year fight against Alzheimer’s Disease on Feb. 22, 2020.

She was born in Moultrie, GA, and when she was a young girl moved with her family to Wilson, NC, where she grew up and graduated from high school.

She attended Meredith College in Raleigh, NC, where she earned an elementary education degree.

She met her husband, Robert “Bob” Russell Sugg Jr., a student at NC State University, on a blind date. They were married on June 24, 1954, and moved to Maryville, TN (1954-1960), where he worked for Alcoa and she taught elementary school.

After a son was born in 1957, she stayed at home. A daughter came in 1959.

Opportunities with Alcoa moved the family to Evansville, IN (1960-1968), Rockdale, TX (1968-1970), Port Lavaca, TX (1970-1974), Pittsburg, PA (1974-1975), back to Rockdale (1975-1980), and finally to Sao Louis, Brazil (1980-1986).

After her marriage ended in 1986, she moved back to Rockdale for a third time, where she immersed herself in the things she loved the most: digging in the dirt to collect artifacts of indigenous peoples, digging in the sand to find sharks’ teeth, improving her painting skills and mastering various mediums of that expression, maintaining a fabulous lawn, and spending time with her Alcoa girlfriends playing bridge, taking art lessons, and just enjoying her grandsons.

In 2012, after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, she moved from Rockdale to an assisted living facility in San Antonio and then, less than a year later, into memory care. She fought hard for almost seven years before transitioning into her forever home with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Mary Olive was preceded in death by her parents, Edwin Herman Spivey and Cara Olivia Downs Spivey.

She is survived by her son and daughter, Robert Russell Sugg III and Connie Sugg Claeys; their respective spouses, Rebecca Wright Sugg and John Claeys; and her grandsons, Jordan Sugg (his wife, Joy Janszen Sugg), Scott Cleays, Cory Sugg (his wife, Kristy Pearce Sugg), and Jason Claeys; and three great-grandchildren.

A private family service is scheduled the last week of July at her sister’s home in Spirit Lake, ID, where her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, will join her sister, Connie Williams, her brother, Edwin “Buck” Spivey, and both their families to celebrate her life and legacy and cast her ashes in one of the places she loved the most.

In lieu of flowers, please make a tribute gift in honor of our mother to the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).

Arrangements by Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home, P.O. Drawer 1417, Rockdale, TX 76567, 512-446-5454.