Lavenia “Chee Chee” Holland Turner passed away at her daughter’s home on January 11, 2022 from complications from metastatic breast cancer. She was the beloved wife of Blair Turner for 62 years.
Chee Chee was raised in Dallas, NC, then attended high school in Cary, NC, graduating from Cary High in 1956. She went on to graduate from Gastonia Memorial Hospital Nursing School in 1959. Upon moving to Laurel, MD in 1960, she worked at Laurel Hospital, in pediatrics, and then later at a local OB/Gyn office before retiring from her paid nursing career. Chee Chee continued to nurse and nurture as a volunteer in both her church and local community through support groups and home visits.
Chee Chee was a positive spirit, nurturing supporter, generous and fun companion to her family and friends. She loved reading, gardening, cooking (always for others!), Bible study and spending time with friends. But her number one priority was always to her family. Her devotion to her husband Blair served as a model of faithful, patient love and affection. He would later say that meeting her “was the most significant event of my life, hands down. Nothing else is even close.” A devoted mom, she was her children’s champion in all things and never allowed the distance of her son Roger’s career in the Marine Corps to be a barrier, traveling thousands of miles to support his many moves and deployments. She provided constant loving support to Roger and Kathy and all of their friends, many of whom spent hours at her kitchen table. Her love for her five grandsons was legendary; present at each of their births, she was “my Chee Chee” to each of them. Their Chee Chee was on the sidelines at games, in the audience at concerts and performances, or wherever she could best be present in their lives.
In addition to her husband Blair, Chee Chee is survived by son Roger (Carole); daughter Kathy (Stew); grandsons Zachary, Austin, Alec, Logan and Maxwell; sister Jennie (Butch); brother in law Lyod; and four nieces and their families. Her generous love lives on in each of them. She was preceded in death by her parents Beeler and Grace Holland, sister Barbara Rose, and brother Yates Holland.
A celebration of life service will be held at Laurel Presbyterian Church on Thursday, January 20th -invitation- only due to COVID restrictions.
Please join us for the livestream service on: January 20th at 11 AM. A recording will be available online.
https://youtu.be/RqKAeR-wEqc
Interment at Ivy Hill Cemetery at 12:30 pm, all are welcome.
Memorial contributions may be sent in her memory to the Gaston College Foundation to a fund set up in honor of Chee Chee’s sister, the Barbara Holland Rose Nursing Scholarship. Gifts may be made online at give.gaston.edu; choose the Foundation fund, then designate the Barbara Holland Rose Nursing Scholarship in the comments section. You may also donate by mail to Gaston College Foundation, 201 Highway 321, South Dallas, NC 28034.
To leave words of condolence to the family, please visit www.donaldsonfuneralhomes.com/.
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