Maria Jimenez Duval

On April 9, 2023, Easter Morning, Maria de los Angeles Elizabeth (Jimenez) Duval (Mae), mother of 5 passed away in Cary, North Carolina surrounded by family. Mae was born on December 22, 1935, in San Jose, Costa Rica to Lucille (Stewart) and Juan Rafael Jimenez. She and her mother and sister moved to the United States in 1950. Mae was pre-deceased by her husband Robert (Bob) N. Duval, Sister Sara Lou (Jimenez) Sikes, and Mother Lucille (Stewart) Jimenez. Mae graduated from Roosevelt High School in Atlanta, Georgia in 1953. After school, she worked for Southern Bell in the payroll department. In 1968, Mae accepted an invitation from friends to go on a blind date with Bob Duval, in a fit of what can only be considered temporary insanity she agreed to marry Bob and traded her Mercury Cougar for a Buick Station Wagon. Immediately she became the mother to his four daughters, Karen Joy (m. Richard Paul Smith), Barbara Leigh (m. Timothy Alan Morris), Robin Allison (m. Carl Louis Roeder), and Angelique Mary (m. Michael Otis Smith). She loved her new family and daughters immensely as her own and was loved in return just the same. In just a few years Mae gave birth to John Robert Duval (m. Melanie Joy Patrick) to round out the family and to give Bob an ally in a house full of women. The family thrived, and in 1979, in another fit of questionable sanity, Bob and Mae planted a Christmas tree farm in Centerville, Ga. Unfortunately, Bob was taken from the family in 1982, leaving Mae with four adult children and John. In her resilience, she maintained the farm and returned to school to receive an A.A. degree from Gwinnett Technical College in accounting. She began working for Skaltek America, which she dearly enjoyed, where she worked until her retirement in 2007. After retirement, Mae was active in her church and volunteered her time at Snellville Middle School tutoring English as a Second Language. Mae was an avid reader and was never without a book. She was a tremendous fryer of fish and hush puppies. Mae loved her grandchildren Allison LeighAnn (Smith) Fogarty, Megan Elizabeth (Smith) Clark, Jayna Elisabeth Adams, Mallory Elyse Smith, Robert Addison Adams, Emma Duval Morris, and Jacob Siah Malinchak. Her great-grandchildren Cairenn, Bridget, Keelan, Declan (Allison Fogarty), and Laine and Lawson (Megan Smith Clark) were a great joy to her as she watched them grow. She was loved and beloved and will be greatly missed. A private memorial will be held at a later date in Decatur, Georgia. In lieu of flowers please donate to Transitions LifeCare at https://www.transitionslifecare.org/donate/.

Maria Jimenez Duval

December 22, 1935 - April 9, 2023