Maxine Jane Leroy

Maxine Jane Leroy passed away on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Born in 1943, in Lorraine, Ohio, she moved to California as a teen and while at Hume Lake Christian Camps with a friend, met Herb and Alice Hibbs who took her in. She lived with the Hibbs until she graduated from Fowler High School in 1961. Maxine married Curtiss Leroy, from Hendersonville, North Carolina on February 14^th, 1964 after meeting him at Hume Lake where she was employed in the ice cream shop. In the early years of their marriage, while Curtiss was stationed in Aberdeen, Maryland at Officer Training School their first child, Mary Anne (Higbee) was born in 1968. Their second child, Scott Leroy, was born in 1970 while they were stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. She single-handedly raised her 2 children in Alaska while her husband was sent to Vietnam.  After Curtiss returned from war, they moved to central California. Living initially in Bakersfield, then moving to Fresno, and finally residing in Fowler, California where they raised their children through their college years. During those years, she worked for the State of California in the Unemployment Office. She loved people and had the pleasure of turning colleagues into lifelong friends. She retired after 26 years as an Unemployment Adjudicator. She volunteered at church through the years in several capacities. Again she developed friendships at church that lasted all her days.  She loved to travel and took her children all over the country and especially places in California. Her most favorites were the beach and Hume Lake. She enjoyed camping with the trailer groups that she was a part of through church or the Airstream Club. She was an avid shopper and loved arts and crafts. After the kids were out of the house, they eventually moved to Tucson, Arizona to be near their son and his family during their early retirement years. She and Curtiss spent her remaining years in Tucson and in Saddlebrook along with their numerous friends whom they met while attending church in the area. She was a wonderful wife, sincere Christian, and great mother who took joy in raising her family and spending time with her grandchildren. She was thrilled to become a great grandma and told everyone she met about them. She is survived by her older sister Barbara Landreth, her Aunt Gola Gilespie, her husband Curtiss Leroy, her children Mary Anne Higbee (John) and Scott Leroy (Jane), numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews, and her grandchildren Ashley Wall (Mitchell), Rhett Leroy (Abi), Bo Nielsen, Korin Leroy, Payton Nielsen, and Madison Nielsen, and her three great grandchildren Emma Wall, Zarina Nazriev, and Kiyomiddin Nazriev.