Daily Press (Newport News, VA) - November 10, 2004
Marie Y. Hughes, local businesswoman and civic leader, died Sunday after a short illness. She was 86.
Mrs. Hughes was born in Rocky Mount, N.C., and grew up in Greensboro, N.C. She attended the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and moved to the Peninsula in 1948. She was the second woman real estate broker licensed in Newport News and was among the first women brokers licensed in Virginia. She was the president of J.P. Yancey Realty Co. Inc., a Newport News company she founded in the late 1940s with her brother.
According to her nephew, Robert E. Yancey, president of John Yancey Companies, she continued to be active within the company up until the onset of her illness.
"She literally worked to the end," he said.
Mrs. Hughes was involved in numerous civic and social organizations. She was a founding member and past president of the Virginia Peninsula Chapter of Soroptimists International, a women's service organization, and in 1985 received its Woman of Distinction Award.
"She was a wonderful, outgoing woman with unlimited energy," said Linda Eastman, a social worker with Newport News Social Services.
Mrs. Hughes was chairman of the Newport News Board of Zoning Appeals and had served as a member of the Youth Services Commission and the city's Architect and Engineer Selection Committee. In addition, she served on the board of directors of the Peninsula United Way, where she was on the budget committee.
Mrs. Hughes was preceded in death by her husband, retired Army Col. Joseph D. Hughes; her parents, John P. Yancey Sr. and Anna Marie Yancey; and her brother, John P. Yancey Jr.
Mrs. Hughes is survived by two daughters, Terry H. Jackson and Lori H. Williams, both of Gloucester; three grandchildren, Jill J. Garrett of California, Md., Travis H. Williams of Blacksburg and Kelly M. Williams of Gloucester; two great-grandchildren, Taylor A. Garrett and Jacob A. Garrett, both of California, Md.; two nephews, John P. Yancey III and Robert E. Yancey, both of Newport News; and three great-nephews, Richard A. Yancey of Atlanta, Ga., Christopher M. Yancey of China and David E. Yancey of Newport News.
A wake will be held from 6 to 8 tonight at Peninsula Funeral Home. A Funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Jerome's Catholic Church, Denbigh, with burial to follow in Peninsula Memorial Park.
Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to the Peninsula Habitat for Humanity or the American Red Cross.
Marie Hughes Edition: Final
Page: C5
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