Beverly Clay Hocutt

Beverly Clay Hocutt

February 20, 1941 – October 2, 2026

Beverly Clay Hocutt, our dearly loved “Memaw”, passed away peacefully at home on October 2, 2026.

As we mourn her loss, we also celebrate the love, joy, and generosity of a remarkable woman. We will remember her as a loving mother, a doting grandmother and a kind soul.

Beverly Jean Clay was born on February 20,1941 in Atlanta, the youngest of four children born to Eugene Lee Clay and Grace Stewart Clay.

It was graduation day on June 4th, 1959 at Southwest High School in Atlanta, when Beverly Jean Clay walked across the stage and imagined a life of dreams that lay ahead. She didn’t have to wait long. That same month, after a courtship of writing love letters back and forth, she married Ralph Agrippa Hocutt Jr. and left Atlanta for Birmingham, Alabama.

She was shy and he was gregarious. She was a great cook and he was a great eater. For years, she would make his breakfast while he read her the morning paper. They were made for each other.

In their first three years of marriage, they had three children: Catherine Ann Hocutt, David Lee Hocutt and Rhonda Faye Hocutt. Motherhood became her expertise, and she tended to her family with great care, love and devotion.

After a move to St. Louis, the family settled in Albany in 1967, in a home Beverly loved and lived in for nearly 60 years. She enrolled in nursing school and became an L.P.N. caring for patients at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

In 1992, she and Ralph had the joy of filling their empty nest with daughter Rhonda and oldest granddaughter Megan Piper. Beverly rejoiced in and embraced motherhood all over again.

She was blessed with three more grandchildren: William Isern, Hannah Cain (Coty) and Shayna Rix (Brandon). Megan White (Greg) gave her four great-grandchildren: Cooper, Amelia, Graham and Evelyn White.

Beverly loved gardening in her tree-filled yard, her dogs and the quiet solitude and wildlife of the mountains. For many years, she and Ralph spent time together in their cabin in North Georgia and generously shared it with friends and family.

After her beloved Ralph died in 2021, Beverly could often be found sitting and talking with her daughter and best friend, Rhonda, or on her front porch, marveling at her life.

After living out that life she imagined and more, having had all of her dreams come true, now she is with Ralph again. Breakfast is on the stove, he is reading to her, and she is listening, just as she always did.