Mary Frances Lilly

February 8, 1926 - September 12, 2020

Graveside services for Mary Frances Brown Lilly will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday September 14, 2020 at Laurel hill Cemetery in Thomasville, Georgia. She passed away at home on September 12 after a long decline. Mrs. Lilly was born in Quitman, Georgia on February 8, 1926, the youngest child of Olen E. Brown, Sr. and Lavinia Young Brown. After graduating from Quitman High School she started work in the Brooks County Welfare Office. In 1947 she married Roy M. Lilly who had moved from Quitman to practice law in Thomasville. Judge Lilly often called her his closest confidante and advisor and admitted she intuitively knew and provided everything he wanted or needed before he realized it, himself. He predeceased her in 2012. She always felt called to be a homemaker and mother. After she raised her own children, she insisted on providing such regular care for all her grandchildren that their relationship even now is more that of siblings than of cousins. She kept an open revolving door not just for her children’s and grandchildren’s friends, but for generations of children in her neighborhood. And she loved getting updates on any child who had grown up and moved away. For more than 70 years Mrs. Lilly was a member of First United Methodist Church where she served as a Sunday School pianist and teacher as well as a Cub Scout den mother and Brownie Scout leader. Later, she was among the parents backing the organization of the Thomasville Music and Drama Troupe as it emerged from the church’s youth choirs. She was an active Jerger PTA member and officer, as well as a member of the Thomasville Junior Service League in which she remained a sustaining member for the rest of her life. She also held the longest membership in and was the oldest member of the Thomasville Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Lilly is survived by her three children, Roy M. Lilly, Jr. (Eleanor), Lavinia L. Krech and George R. Lilly, II (Nelray), all of Thomasville; her grandchildren, A. William Krech, III, Hull S. Krech, Sr. (Rebecca), David H. Krech, Sr. (Amanda), Mary Lawrence L. Lang (Ashley), all of Thomasville, Roy M. Lilly, III (Nicole) of Savannah, Frances Lilly Howell (Jay) of Knoxville, Tennessee, Laura Lilly Cotten (Graham) of Birmingham, Alabama, and George R. Lilly, III (McClain) of Greenville, South Carolina; as well as by her great-grandchildren, Hull S. Krech, Jr., Noah T. Krech, Miller A. Krech, Annaleah Krech, David H. Krech, Jr., Kaden Walker and A. Pierce Lang, Jr., of Thomasville; and John F. Howell, IV and Thomas H. Howell of Knoxville, Tennessee. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Thomasville First United Methodist Church, the Archbold Foundation or another charity of the donor’s choice.