Jessie Mae DeBoard

Jessie Mae DeBoard of East Hampton will be remembered, said her family, as an outgoing, positive, and hard-working woman. Mrs. DeBoard, who died on Nov. 4 at a daughter’s home in White Plains, Md., was 74 years old and had long had a respiratory illness.

She was born Jessie Mae Jackson on April 2, 1941, the oldest of seven children of Jesse Jackson and Osceola Turner, in Perry, Ga. The family moved to Southampton when she was very young; then, about five years later, to Sag Harbor. She graduated from Southampton High School in 1958 and married Leroy E. DeBoard that same year. They were together for 18 years before divorcing.

Mrs. DeBoard, who earned a degree in psychology from the New York Institute of Technology in the mid-1980s, worked for many years as a real estate agent and as a customer service clerk with the New York Telephone Company, retiring in 1993. She lived for a long time in East Hampton until she fell ill, when she moved to Maryland to be with her daughter Nicole.

Her family said she loved to travel, and she visited the Caribbean at least 15 times. She also loved to read, but “most of all, she loved being a grandmother” to her seven grandchildren.

Mrs. DeBoard is survived by six siblings, Shirley Turner of East Hampton, Judy Turner and Thomas Turner, both of Richmond, Va., Rose Turner of Albany, Colleen Turner of Massapequa, Irene Jackson of Perry, and Denny Turner of Sag Harbor. In addition to Nicole DeBoard, she leaves two other children, Keith H. DeBoard of Costa Mesa, Calif., and Lisa E. DeBoard-Fox of Raleigh, N.C.

Funeral services will take place at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Garden Memorial Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., the Rev. D.L. McLaughlin officiating. Nicole DeBoard would be grateful to receive cards of sympathy at 8854 Warburton Place, White Plains, Md. 20695.