Marquita Pearl Johnson-Bailey

Graveside services for Marquita Pearl Johnson-Bailey, are scheduled for 2:00 P.M. Friday, December 22, 2023, at Reck Cemetery.

There will be a family visitation held at Alexander Gray Funeral Home Chapel in Wilson, before services, from noon until procession begins to the cemetery.

Marquita Pearl Johnson-Bailey was born on February 22, 1951, in Wynnewood, OK, and died on

December 13, 2023, at her home in Sylvania, AL, surrounded by loved ones. Her grandfather

affectionately called her “Dolly” because she was perfect and beautiful, like a baby doll. She is

preceded in death by her parents, Era Pearl Burcham and William Johnson, and three siblings,

Billy Joe Burcham, William Eddie Johnson, and Elizabeth Ann Johnson. She is also preceded by

her grandson, Brian Wayne McGehee, and her husband of fifteen years, Eddie DeRoy Bailey.

She married W.C. McGehee in 1968, and her stepson Freddy and two more children, Marc and

Shandrah, came from this union.

Marquita believed in the value of an education and took degrees from Southern Oklahoma Area

Vocational Technical Center (A.A. practical nursing) in 1973, Murray State College (A.A.

applied science) in 1977, and East Central University (B.S. nursing) in 1987. Furthermore, she

took her M.B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1997. She served twenty-seven years in the

Air Force Reserve in the 134th and 136th units and earned her wings, becoming a Colonel. She

retired from Dekalb Regional Hospital in 2018, where she served as the chief nursing officer for

eight and a half years and concluded her forty-five-year career in nursing. Among her academic

and professional achievements, she was a mother and grandmother.

Marquita enjoyed crocheting, quilt-making, reading romance novels, home decorating, singing in

the church choir, and spending time with family and friends. She was loving, driven, loyal, and

full of integrity. She believed in hard work and had steadfast faith.

She is survived by her partner of thirteen years, Jesse Douglas Carter (Sylvania, AL), her

children, Shandrah Sharmel Bremner, and her husband, William (Ft. Smith, AR), Fredric Wayne McGehee (Tulsa, OK), and Marc Douglas McGeehee (Ft. Payne, AL). 

Her grandchildren, Thomas Frederic McGehee of (Prague, OK), Andrew Ivings (Dallas, TX), Olivia Ivings (Atlanta,

GA), and Ethan Ivings (Sarasota, FL), and life-long family friend Sheila Ivings also survive her.

Sister, Mary Amy Johnson-Reynolds.

Finally, her many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends survive her.

Please send donations to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (https://www.bcrf.org/) in her honor

instead of sending flowers if you feel inclined.