Maebell Dyess Grantham

Published 8:19 pm Friday, April 16, 2021

Maebell Dyess Grantham, 69, of Troy, passed away Tuesday, April 13, 2021, following a well-fought battle against cancer. A funeral service was held Friday, April 16, 2021, at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Green Hills Funeral Home. Burial will follow in the Bethel Assembly of God Church Cemetery (Ariton) with Marc Folmar, Hudson Grantham, Scotty Jordan, Richie Grantham, Chris Blocker, and Terry Hester serving as pallbearers. Visitations was Thursday, April 15, 2021, from 5-7 p.m. at Green Hills Funeral Home, and was held again, Friday, one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.

Maebell was a familiar face, an always smiling horticultural resource, and an iconic associate with the Troy Wal-Mart garden center. She dedicated 14 years of professional sales service to the corporation and impressed upon countless shoppers a memorable shopping experience. Just as she was professionally, Maebell was a “can-do, will do” champion of tasks and a reliable recruit for adventure.

She dabbled in other trades, at one time a skilled cosmetologist, an attentive homemaker and child-wrangler, and at least once-a-year, a fleeting pirate of the high seas. Maebell was a gifted painter and seamstress, a self-taught carpenter with pinpoint accuracy, a celebrated culinary authority on cornbread, a visionary junker and connoisseur of yard sales, and had a thumb for cultivating a plush garden from the smallest pinch-of-plants.

Maebell was a great collector of memories and advocate of experiences over things. She leapt at the chance to explore the shores of Panama City Beach or to troll the waters of Lake Eufaula, and if either presented the opportunity to bait a hook and cast a line, she never said no. She often told her best escapades stretched “from the beach to the creek and anywhere between.” Maebell kept the roads hot, but there comes a time, on all great trips, to return home, and for her, it was just time “to get home and wash some clothes.”

Mrs. Grantham is survived by her children, Jason (Brandi) Grantham, Cayla (Michael) German, Janet (Thomas) Johnson; step-children, Rhonda (Rusty) Barefoot, Jeff (Brandi) Grantham, and Grantham (Fran) Richie;  the last love of her life, Rickey Hester, she was his caboose and he was her engine; grandchildren, Katelyn Grantham, Brooke Grantham, Hudson Grantham, Landon Cole, Ryleigh Johnston, Colton German, Brystol German, Mitch (Adrianne) Johnson, Marleigh Johnson, Brandi (Jonathan) Givens, Brian Cook, Ryan Grantham, Jacob (Devyn) Grantham, Jackson Grantham, Tyler Grantham, Chris (Lisa) Grantham, and Ashley (Easton) Gilbert; 14 great-grandchildren; sisters, Betty Dunn and Kimlen (Larry) Gray; numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins; and two beloved grand-dogs, Zoey and Harley Grace. She was preceded in death by her husband, Don Grantham; parents, Melvin and Lorena Dyess; sister, Mavis Flowers; and brother, Glen Dyess.

Friends and family can sign the guestbook online at www.greenhillsfuneralhome.net. The staff of Green Hills Funeral Home is honored to serve the Grantham family.