Verna Laurel Lopey

Verna Lopey, beloved educator, and disciple of Christ, died Tuesday, July 5, 2022, peacefully in her sleep in Brentwood, TN. She was 97 years old.

She was born Verna Laurel Parris on July 17, 1924, to parents Dorothy and Herman Parris in

Guyana, South America. She graduated from Bishops High School in Georgetown, Guyana. In 1949, she emigrated to the United States of America to pursue her college education and became a naturalized citizen on November 11, 1954.

Verna’s dream of pursuing a college education resulted in her earning a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Brooklyn College in 1960, and later a master’s degree in mathematical education from Columbia University in 1964. Her love of teaching led to her becoming a junior high school teacher of mathematics at Ditmas, a High School Math Teacher at Midwood, as well as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College.  After Verna moved to Atlanta, she served as a math teacher at Benjamin E. Mays High School in Atlanta, GA until she retired in 1992. Verna was a perpetual learner, obtaining hours and hours of additional certifications from Columbia University, the University of Illinois, and Brooklyn College. A master at her craft, she served for many years as a mathematics curriculum developer in the Atlanta Public School System.

Verna’s mission was to embrace disaffected youth. She was most successful in supporting them as they acquired intellectual and emotional skills needed to cope with school, college preparation, and career exploration. She strongly believed that for her target population the environment needed to be relatively unstructured and accessible. She engaged students in the planning of instruction to better meet the individualized needs of each student. She was definitely ahead of her times with regards to student engagement. Ultimately, the curriculum she developed for 7th and 9th grade mathematics was adopted and used districtwide in Brooklyn for years. Praise be to the Holy One, she was blessed with thirty years of retirement.

Verna was staunchly dedicated to her family. She was a devoted wife, mother, aunt, cousin, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She especially enjoyed annual beach vacations with her family and their friends. She also enjoyed traveling abroad! Her refrigerator held the story, in colorful tourist magnets, of her travels to far away places. She once sweetly lamented that she had missed traveling to two continents-Antarctica and Australia! Verna was proud of her travels and the friends she made around the world.

Throughout Verna’s life of faithful service, in addition to her family, God’s work always held centerstage. During the decades at her beloved Holy Cross in Decatur, she was the first lady to serve as senior warden of the vestry. Additionally, she served as Sunday School superintendent, member of the Altar Guild, Episcopal Church Women, Daughters of the King, and the Young at Heart. Her loving dedication to God and the people of Holy Cross resulted in Verna generously donating a new pipe organ (still in use today) more than twenty years ago. She thoroughly delighted in listening and observing when organists would “make the organ sing” as she would proclaim!  Always a cheerful giver, she was a dedicated contributor to the Building Fund, resulting in the construction of the Education Building and offices now in use. As a member of The Prayer Group, Verna joined in their commitment to continually offer prayers of intercession, thanksgiving, and praise to God on behalf of individuals and the greater community.

While Verna enjoyed her life of service, she valued the importance of taking time to enjoy the arts. Along with a few dear friends, she maintained an annual membership for live theatre at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Several Sundays after church each year, she would forgo an extended coffee hour fellowship to make her way home to meet her devoted theatre buddies. They reveled in getting ready for the show and dinner afterwards. Verna’s preparation for the experience always resulted in every detail attended to-dressed from head to toe, with coordinating hat, shoes and purse, gloves, and jewelry, of course. Stylishly graceful, she embodied “being well dressed is a beautiful form of politeness.”

Verna was preceded in death by her loving husband, Dr. Nathaniel Lopey, her daughters Denise Duncan and Leslie Triplett, her parents Herman and Dorothy Parris, and her brother and sister-in-law Roderick and Agnes Parris, and niece Beverly Hall. She is survived by her granddaughters, Lauren (Jeremy) Griffey, Aleshea Triplett, and Camryn Triplett, her great-grandchildren Jeremy Griffey, Aniya Trent, and Jackson Griffey, her nieces Marilyn Sherman and Terry Austin, great-nieces and nephews Monisha, Roderick, Minette, Christopher, and Nicole, and many more cherished nieces, nephews, beloved cousins in the US, Canada, and the West Indies, and a host of friends.