February 25, 1942 ~ November 7, 2025 (age 83)
Emily LaFaye Medders McKay passed away on November 7, 2025, surrounded by loved ones in her beloved Lake Harding home. After her struggle with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, LaFaye is now at peace in God’s eternity. The beauty, talent, creativity, and intelligence that were her hallmark in life are her legacy in death and in those she loved and inspired.
LaFaye was a lifelong resident of Valley. Born on February 25, 1942, she was raised in Fairfax and, in the summers, on the family farm in the Doublehead community near Roanoke. She was a 1960 graduate of Valley High School, where she was Salutatorian of her graduating class and was chosen as the Junior Class Beauty.
It was at Valley High School that she met her sweetheart, Jerry O’Neal McKay. They married a few months after her high school graduation and enjoyed 65 years of a marriage full of travel, faith, and family. LaFaye is survived by her husband, Jerry, as well as their children Paige McKay Kubik (Craig), Thea McKay McElvy (Dutch), and Sean McKay (Kelly), their grandchildren Jason McElvy (Chelsey), DJ McElvy (Katie), Connor McKay, Luke McKay (Jessica), Mitch McKay, Jared Kubik, and Kate Kubik. They were blessed with five great-grand children: Bradley and Ryan McElvy, Allison and Jacks McElvy, and Rosie McKay. LaFaye was the daughter of the late Ann Birdsong Griffin and John Forrest Medders.
In addition to beloved mother and wife, LaFaye held many titles over her life, among them Sunday School teacher, song leader, aerobics instructor, administrator with the Chambers County District Attorney’s Office, Girl Scout leader, and Valley High School Band Booster.
She was also a poet, a writer, and an artist. Generations of students and faculty at her alma mater, Fairfax Elementary School, may remember the beautiful seasonal bulletin boards of LaFaye’s beloved aunt, first grade teacher Ruth Birdsong Dunn. LaFaye would work into the wee hours of the night after putting her children to bed, a roll of West Point Pepperell lantuck spread out on the living room floor, drawing and using colored chalk to create detailed scenes of fall apple harvests, winter forests draped in snow, or Dickensian Christmas carolers. After LaFaye’s Aunt Ruth retired, the bulletin boards continued to be passed down through generations of Fairfax teachers.
LaFaye was a prolific writer and poet, though she shared little of what she wrote with others. One of her poems ends:
Turning, always turning—now just one more time.
The woman unlatched the door, the windows flung open wide;
The pall dispersed, fresh air rushed in.
She walked now free outside.
LaFaye and Jerry married on August 19, 1960, then joined Plant City Methodist Church the next day, on August 20, 1960. They have been faithful servants of the church throughout their marriage. In lieu of flowers, donations in LaFaye’s memory may be made to Plant City Methodist Church or to the Christian Service Center, founded by McKay family friend and neighbor, Cheryl Breedlove Myers.
Family and friends are invited to visitation at Johnson Brown – Service Funeral Home in Valley, Alabama, on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 from 6:00 P.M. – 8:00 PM Eastern.
A funeral service for LaFaye will be held at Johnson Brown – Service Funeral Home, Valley, Alabama, on Wednesday, November 12, at 11:00 AM (EST).
Interment will follow immediately after the service at Harmony Memorial Park in Lanett, Alabama.
Please visit LaFaye’s Memorial Tribute page at www.johnsonbrownservicefh.com to leave a kind word for her family, to share a memory of LaFaye, or to light a Remembrance Candle in her memory.
Johnson Brown-Service Funeral Home of Valley directing.
Local Obituaries brought to you by Frederick-Dean, and Valley Point Funeral Homes. “Serving our communities in its time of need”.
