Hezekiah Gilyard Obituary
We are sad to announce that on February 3, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Hezekiah Gilyard. Hezekiah Gilyard was born to Thomas Gilyard and Rosa Gilyard on October 20, 1922 in Berrien County, Georgia. He was raised by his mother and stepfather, Ford DeBerry.
He served in the United States Army during World War II and was among the first wave of troops to enter Japan after the cessation of armed conflict. Back in civilian life, he married Mary Zella Lewis of Ocilla, Georgia, on August 2, 1946. They relocated to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, and their union subsequently produced four children: Barbara Michelle (b. 1951), Raymond Keith (b. 1952), Karen Patrice (b. 1954), and Frances Carol (b. 1958 and who predeceased him).
Gilyard was a deacon at Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist Church before moving to Queens. In the 1960s, he began working for the United States Postal Service and remained in that capacity until his retirement in 1987. In 1996, he relocated to Chesapeake, Virginia, with his by-then longtime partner Rosetta Ryland Turner, who preceded him in death.
The Lord called Gilyard home on February 3, 2021 at Autumn Care of Suffolk. He leaves behind his wife; remaining children; daughter-in-law Sharyn Gilyard; sisters Catherine Anderson and Clevenia Abel (Jonathan); sisters-in-law Georgia Teague and Vandella Florence; brother-in-law Harold Lewis; as well as Vernon Lee Ryland (Marie) and Curtis Anthony Turner. He had thirteen grandchildren—Eric Gilyard, Nicole Wilkinson, Andre Gilyard, Taneha Gilyard, Kahlil Gilyard, Kaamilah Gilyard, Matthew Wilkinson, Tyrell Pope, Jerome Slaughter, Amina Gilyard James, Asha Wilkinson, Tiffany Gilyard, and Justin Slaughter.
He also had fifteen great-children and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends, including those at the music shows, the ball games, on golf courses, and at Mount Hermon Baptist Temple in Portsmouth, Virginia.
