Suzie Gurley Magee

Suzie Gurley Magee won her struggle with heart failure on July 7, 2021 when she passed peacefully at Baylor University Medical Center at the age of 58. Suzie lived in Frisco, Texas with her family and was a Certified Public Accountant who worked as a Comptroller for several area car dealerships. Her husband, James Elder Magee and her sons James Ryan Magee and Colin James invite all her family and friends for a Memorial Service to celebrate her life on: Saturday, July 17 at 10:00 am at Park Cities Baptist Church, Ellis Chapel, 3933 Northwest Parkway Dallas, Texas 75225. A reception will follow immediately afterwards. An additional Memorial service will be held in her birthplace in Lexington, Tennessee on Thursday, July 22 at 11AM at New Hope United Methodist Church with burial to follow in Mt. Gilead Cemetery. Visitation will be on Thursday from 9AM until service. While the death of Suzanne Gurley Magee is remembered by her 4-year struggle with heart failure, her accomplishments in life are what helped her to rise above her 4’10” stature. Suzie was born in Lexington, Tennessee on January 11, 1963 to Virginia Ruth Smith (1920–1990) and Roy Frank Gurley (1920–1998). While she considered herself raised in the city of Lexington, her family moved to the family farm on the outskirts of town in 1973. She quipped that while her mother didn’t initially want to move to the farm where her relations had lived, she wanted to make the best of it. The farm, where her brother Roy Lynn Gurley (1957 - ) stills lives was acquired from a land grant in the mid 1800’s and was consolidated by her cousin Adrian Odell Buck (1914 - 1995). The farm was passed to Suzie and Roy by Odell’s wife Francis Knight Buck (1915 - 2008). The farm always provided a retreat for Suzie, allowing her time to visit with family and childhood friends. She is also survived by a special childhood friend, Amy McPeake Williams. Odell, a prominent Nashville transportation attorney funded her education at Union University, a Baptist college in Jackson, TN where she earned her BS in Accounting. Suzie got her taste for big city life by working for him in the summertime. After graduation, she decided to look for a job in the Dallas area, staying with her cousin Marvin Wade. Marvin was her future husband’s flight instructor. He introduced the two. Suzie married James Elder Magee on February 17, 1995 in Lexington, a few months prior to her mother’s death. They moved to Texas where they had 2 children, James Ryan Magee (1995 - ) and Colin James Magee (2001 - ). The kids were both named for their father to avoid offending either side of the family. Suzie attained her Certified Public Accountant title on March 27, 1991 noting that CPA really stands for “Can’t Pass Again.” She never wanted to work as a public accountant, so she found employment in the publishing and home health care fields. She eventually landed at Park Place Lexus as an Assistant Comptroller. In 2005, she was on the team that was awarded Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. It was a highlight of her career. She went on to manage the accounting departments in several other Dallas-area car dealerships. When asked about her work, she once said, “I accrued.” She was fascinated with accounting, but what she liked doing the most was writing really big checks. She prided herself on trying to hire the very best teams and she remained friends with many of her colleagues. If asked, she’d say her hobbies were walking and reading. In reality, she only said walking because it made her seem more active. She loved reading romance novels bought in bulk from Half Price Books. She was almost helpless in the kitchen, but she loved making 5 Spice Casserole and other southern treats from the Lexington community cookbooks. In 2017, Suzie had a heart attack and had an LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) implanted to help her heart. Most people will remember her for courage during multiple open-heart surgeries, but her personality was really shaped after a stroke in 2018. A friend once said to her that she must have a superpower to get through this. When asked what her superpower was, she wrote the word “strength.” Later, her husband asked her what his superpower would be, if hers was strength. She wrote down, “endurance.’ When asked about why she had so much strength to endure so many medical complications, she replied, “I just do what the doctors tell me to do.” Despite all of her complications, she never worried about the past, only what she could work on in the present. That spirit outlasted even some of her doctors. Before her last surgery in April 2021 she wrote, “I have faith in God. He is controlling the situation. I’m not ready to die. I want to live so I need you (the doctors) to quit talking and do something positive. My quality of life will be diminished, but God will take care of that, so please adjust your attitude about me to have a positive approach. I want to be at home even with the challenges that poses. God has provided excellent care givers for me. Let me use their abilities. I am not afraid to die, I’m just not ready and God says it’s not my time. So, let's get kicking and knock the thing out.” On her last day, she said that she had faith and she still believed that she could get through this. She always cared for other people more than she did herself. She stayed strong in her faith and will be remembered always for the love that she showed through her words and actions. Jesus told her, “I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. John 11.25 (From Suzie’s “The Way” Bible 1973 given to her by Francis Buck)

Suzie Gurley Magee

January 11, 1963 - July 7, 2021