Norma Ruth Lee Gray, 92, peacefully departed this life on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at Sunrise Assisted Living facility in Decatur.

Mrs. Gray was born in Carroll County, GA  on May 3, 1926, the daughter of the late Leon Franklin Lee and the late Olive Janet Marlow Lee. She graduated from Temple High School and married James David Gray on July 1, 1943. She helped J.D. build his grocery business in Villa Rica and worked very hard behind the scenes as his designated “bookkeeper”. Her first priority, however, was that of a homemaker, devoted wife and mother to her three children. She especially loved to cook for her family and to entertain people in her home. She enjoyed many hobbies, including china painting, beading, other crafts and Mah Jongg. She loved to travel, both with her family and friends and with the Fairfield Travel Club. In addition to RVing all over the United States and Canada, she visited all seven continents – including Antartica while in her 80’s. She was a very warm, caring and friendly person and was affectionately known to the people in Villa Rica simply as “Norma”.  She was a faithful member of the Villa Rica First United Methodist Church for many years and served on the Administrative Board for a number of years. She was in every way a “True Southern Lady”, and although she has been gone from Villa Rica for several years, she is still remembered and loved by so many. She will be missed, but her kind deeds will be long remembered.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, James David Gray in 1993.

She is survived by her daughter, Janet Eileen Gray McCallen of Young Harris, GA; her sons, James David Gray and John Brian Gray, both of Atlanta; a brother, Doyce Lee and his wife, Polly, of Carrollton; four grandchildren, Alexander Gray Crane and his wife, Ginny Aagaard, of Woodstock, Molly James Gray, Harrison Walker Gray and Oliver David Gray, all of Atlanta; three great grandchildren, Jenevieve JoAnne Crane, Corbin Grandt Crane and Wade Thomas Crane, all of Woodstock; and several other relatives.

Mrs. Gray has been cremated and her ashes will be interred beside her husband.

A memorial graveside service will be held Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 2:00 P.M. in Hillcrest Cemetery, West Bankhead Highway, Villa Rica, and friends and relatives are invited to attend. 

The family has requested that all flowers be omitted, and those desiring to do so make a contribution in her memory to their favorite charity.

Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at www.jhoytthomas.com.

J. Hoyt Thomas Funeral Home of Villa Rica is caring for the Gray Family.