Born Jan. 29, 1934, in Detroit, she was married for 66 years to Gene Roy until his death in 2018. Together they raised three children, established and for 47 years owned Gene’s Auto Repair in Casselberry and traveled the country showing and touring with their collection of antique automobiles.
They moved to Winter Springs from Detroit in 1968 and bought a house she vowed would be her last -- a promise she kept. In Michigan and Florida, she worked in the greeting card industry until she took on bookkeeping duties for the family business.
Having moved from Detroit to escape the winters, she had little patience with northern transplants who complained of the heat. In Florida she learned to waterski (without ever learning to swim), and became known to her children’s classmates, friends, Boy Scout colleagues and neighbors as Mama Roy -- always willing to give them a ride or a meal or to stick up for them, but not to let them get away with anything.
She had a lifelong love of jigsaw puzzles and read everything from classics to history to romance novels. She handmade quilts for each of her newborn grandchildren and mended them through the years, some when the grandchildren were in college. She taught three generations of offspring the art of making strawberry jam, the necessity of courteous behavior and the joy of unconditional love.
She was preceded in death by her husband Gene; son David; brother Hugh Poet; and son-in-law Tim Lallathin. She is survived by her daughter Pam Lallathin; son Roger Roy (Mary Frances); grandsons T.J. Lallathin (Amber) and David Roy; granddaughters Amanda Bashinski (Spencer), Tiffany McDonald (Heath) and Eleanor Rogers (Jimmy); daughter-in-law Carolyn Roy; great-grandsons Brayden and Levi Fisher, Carter Bashinski and Max and Augie McDonald; and great-granddaughters Sawyer and Ruby Lallathin, Ellie Bashinski and Sunnie McDonald.
She supported the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation serving first responders; the family suggests donations to those charities in lieu of flowers.
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