Walker Collins Curry and Lillian Curry welcomed their daughter Lillian to Sandersville Georgia on January 24, 1940. She lived there amongst the larger Curry family until our grandfather moved to Detroit, Michigan to seek better work and more opportunities for their young family.

My grandmother Lillian, my mom Lillian, her siblings Walker, Teddy and Angela lived in Georgia until they were able to rejoin their father in Detroit.

Southwest Detroit would shape the fierce strength, determination, intuition and courage of Lillian and her siblings for the rest of their lives.

It was spring of 1959 that Lillian married Roosevelt Lee Scruggs, then an Air Force Serviceman from Ethel Arkansas. They would emigrate to Turkey then on to Alaska while raising three children before returning to her Detroit home.

Lillian always had a passion for learning which was channeled to her children and led to her becoming a special education paraprofessional in the suburbs of Detroit and later with a family move to Lansing, Michigan.

Lillian had a particular passion for special education support for children who required it. There are adults who--to date--benefit from her advocacy. Though she ultimately sacrificed her position for her intervention, she was satisfied that there is a woman who now lives independently in a group home setting as opposed to being institutionalized because Lillian cared enough to make the sacrifice for what was right.

A decade of calm would meet a major inflection point with the death of her daughter, our sister, your family-member and friend Lillian. I used the term inflection because she was faced with living her life for herself--a first for her.

A change in scenery with a move to another new home in Evanston, Illinois would facilitate an opportunity to live her life on her own terms.

She would:

Make her own home, make new friends, find a new mom, fall in love, travel, lose love and help more friends.

She lived her life on her terms, with her energy until her passing on January the 2nd, 2026.

Her passion, intelligence, wit, unwavering commitment to helping others and her impact on lives now lived differently for the better will be deeply missed yet… to be never, ever forgotten.

Services for Ms. Scruggs are as follows: