Mallie Truett

Mallie Mae Hill Truett, 79, of Winston-Salem passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

Mallie was born on March 18, 1941 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Lewis Roosevelt Hill and Carrie Mae Hege Hill.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers Andrew Hill, R.L. Hill, Vernon Hill, George Hill, Willis Hill, and her sisters Florence Hill and Betty Baker; and her grand-daughter Olivia Lyons.

She is survived by her husband, Bobby Truett, of home; her sister Mariah Prior (Bobby) and her brothers Terry Hill (Nancy) and Phillip Hill (Gina); her daughters Tiffany Barry (Abdul) and Tenley Long (Donald); her grandchildren Richmond Lyons (Savannah), Tyler Gilmore, Tabatha Lyons, Emily Gilmore, Hayden Long, and Eli Barry; and her great-grandchildren Mallory Lyons, Carter Slate, and Lavender Lyons. She is also survived by very special friends Rocky and Susan Johnson and Carole Witte, as well as the members of the "Twin City Civitan Club": Sharron Shaw, Mary Lou Stott, Mallie Ann McKenzie, Jean Matthews, Debbie Senft, Jan Vandiver, and Beth Weld. Mallie met with the Civitan Club monthly and had a great time trying out every restaurant in Winston-Salem.

Mallie attended Elon College for one year before returning home to help with the family. She worked at Long, Haymes, & Carr Advertising Agency and also did some modeling. She later started her own modeling school and agency in Winston-Salem, Lasting Impressions. She worked in sales for Retail Systems. In later years she worked at Village Interiors in Clemmons.

Mallie's passions were as numerous as the friends and family whose lives she touched, and her social calendar was as full as her heart. Those who gathered around her bedside and sent well-wishes from afar in her final days desperately searched for the right words to describe her personality -- and time and again fell short of capturing her full essence. Vivacious, sure. Iridescent, always. Glamorous, to a fault. But the true measure of her legacy was in the effect she had on everyone and everything around her. She Malliefied her world. She super-glued photos to the walls of cramped sailboat cabins and graced every TV tray with a centerpiece. She made her grandkids tuck in their shirts to get limbs up out of the yard. She ironed the drapes -- at your house. She loved sailing with friends and family, and she was active for many years in the Winston-Salem Sail & Power Squadron. Mallie and Bob sold their house in 1998 to undertake a trip by sailboat along the Inside Passage to Alaska, and then along the Pacific coast to Marina Del Rey, CA. Mallie sailed through the Panama Canal in 1990 (or thereabouts).

She was a regular fixture at Mount Tabor High School volleyball and basketball games for over fifteen years, filling a courtside seat with a radiant smile and a bag of popcorn.

Mallie loved big, bold colors to match her personality, from her drawer(s) full of pink lipsticks to the oversized prints of purple irises adorning the walls of her home. But fabulous as she was, she never got above her raisin’s. There were always tomatoes and strawberries and “skwarsh” in the garden. (But take your shoes off when you come back in. We don’t want any lower driveway dirt in the carpet.) She had more catchphrases than most people have things to say, but one above all best captured her bewilderment (good-natured or otherwise) at life’s endless parade of fools, dishrags, and dumbasses -- “Oh, get out!”

Mallie’s heart was just as big as her personality. She was always quick to give to others and eager to hear about their lives. She took special pleasure in feeding all of her tall, good-looking grandchildren. After her grandkids went off to college and elsewhere, she kept in touch with weekly hand-written letters and newspaper clippings, Hallmark cards for every birthday and holiday, and of course urgent phone calls if she saw on the news that it was raining in Raleigh or Myrtle Beach or Chapel Hill. All of these communications, like her in-person conversations, were defined by genuine laughter and unabashed exclamation points. Ha!! It was always known that she “Loved you bunches!!!”, and grandma’s house had to be the first and last stop on every visit home.

Mallie was also quietly involved with and supportive of many local charities and civic and business organizations. She made an anatomical gift to the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center School of Medicine. In lieu of flowers, memorials will be graciously accepted by the Clemmons Moravian Church Building Fund or by Advent Moravian Church, where she and Bobby married in 1962. The family would like to extend special thanks to Vina Adams, without whom the last several weeks would not have been possible. The family is planning a celebration of life for Mallie at a later date.