Kellon Naomi (Tierce) Maxwell

Kellon Naomi Tierce Maxwell
May 8, 1936 – February 6, 2025

The quiet hum of Rome, Georgia, lost a familiar note on February 6, 2025, when Kellon Naomi Tierce Maxwell passed from this world at the age of 88. Born on a warm May morning in 1936, Kellon came into the world as the daughter of Horace Mitchell Tierce and Maude Bell Hayes Tierce, inheriting their resilience and devotion.

She was a woman who knew the art of caring, not just as an occupation but as a way of moving through the world. A personal care sitter by trade, Kellon spent her days watching over others, providing comfort in the quiet hours, and offering a presence that soothed as much as it steadied. Her faith was the kind that settled deep in the bones; she carried the certainty that Jesus was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she lived accordingly, with a heart turned upward and outward.

She married Gordon Lee Maxwell, a man she loved well and lost too soon. Together, they built a life of shared joys and simple pleasures. Now, she joins him once more, along with her grandchild, Micah Dempsey, and her siblings, Marshall, Lindsey, and Mitchell Tierce, as well as her sister, Melva Shell. Others had gone ahead, too: her nephew, Manuel Tierce, and her sisters-in-law, Pauline and Louise Tierce. In the echoes of their absence, Kellon remained steadfast, filling the spaces left behind with memories, laughter, and stories told over kitchen tables and front porch steps.

Those who carry her memory forward include her daughter, Deborah Darlene Sturges (Jimmy), and her grandchildren, Summer Dempsey, Allison Dempsey, Jason Sturges, and Teresa Shelander. A great-granddaughter, Aaliyah Dempsey, will one day come to know her great-grandmother through the stories passed down. Kellon’s nieces  and nephews, Charlotte Barnwell, Mitchel Shell, Ava Kay Rainy, Lavon Bates, Shanetta Bolin, and Pat Davis hold her close in the recollections of childhood visits and family gatherings. And then, of course, there was her dear friend, Margie Shiflett, the kind of friend who sits beside you through the years, never needing invitation nor excuse.

Kellon had a way of loving that was unembellished and true. She loved the sound of George Jones drifting from the radio, the flutter of wings outside her window as she watched the birds gather, the thrill of a winning bingo card. She loved her two birds which she named in honor of who led and now leading our country, Donald and Melania Trump. But most of all, she loved the life she lived, however simple, however hard-earned.

A service to honor Kellon’s life will be held at Good Shepherd Funeral Home Chapel on Tuesday, February 11, receiving friends and family from 12:00PM till Funeral Service hour at 2:00PM, with Reverend John Huffman leading the way in prayer and remembrance. She will be laid to rest at Eastview Cemetery, where the hush of the wind through the trees will carry her name long into the quiet of eternity. 

Good Shepherd Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements.

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