Martha Lloyd didn't take her four children on trips to New York City or some other exotic locale.
But she introduced them to Atlanta traditions. They took day trips to Callaway Gardens and other signature spots. Every year they rode the pink pig at Rich's, and bought gifts for mom and dad in Santa's shop. They shopped for formal clothes at Lenox Square and bought shoes at Williams Shoe Store.
"You knew seasonally what you were going to do," said a daughter, Bonny Gay Lloyd Applefield of Sandy Springs. "That was her life — to bring joy to us on a limited budget. She had four children pretty close together, so there was a strain on the family budget. She was always searching and taking us places to experience life, and she established the traditions of old Atlanta."
While Mrs. Lloyd was a full-time homemaker, her husband, Charles Albin Lloyd Sr., worked to establish his heating and air-conditioning business. Only when his bride was under the weather did he grasp the finer nuances of running the household. "When she got ill and I had to start helping out with some of these things, I told my friends: I didn't know housework was so hard," said Mr. Lloyd of Sandy Springs. "She was a wonderful homemaker."
Martha Virginia Morris Lloyd, 76, of Sandy Springs, died Thursday from complications of pneumonia at St. Joseph's Hospital. The funeral will be 2 p.m. today at H.M. Patterson and Son, Arlington Chapel, in Sandy Springs.
Born in Milton County, Mrs. Lloyd grew up on Wieuca Road at a time when its residents raised chickens in the backyard and tended vegetable gardens. She attended Liberty Guinn Elementary School and graduated from North Fulton High in 1951. Two years later, she married her husband of 56 years.
After marriage, she worked as a bookkeeper for the Atlanta League of Women Voters. Every payday, she'd treat herself to lunch at the Frances Virginia Tearoom, a popular Atlanta spot now closed. Mrs. Lloyd worked for two years, "then came the babies," her husband said.
Relatives say she embraced motherhood and all it encompassed. She sewed most of the children's school clothes and was a go-to parent on campus, her daughter said. "Back in the day we carpooled on field trips, and she was always a volunteer driver," she said. "All the kids knew Mrs. Lloyd, and wanted to ride in her car. She was the one who did the cupcakes for the Christmas party. You'd think that she could only devote time to one classroom, but she was always there, and we were so proud because Mom was there."
Mrs. Lloyd loved gardening and designed floral arrangements. She belonged to the Sandy Springs Garden Club, among other groups.
Other survivors include a son, Charles A. "Chuck" Lloyd Jr. of Gainesville: two other daughters, Libby Lloyd Nanney of Roswell; and Debby May Lloyd Harper of Alpharetta; two brothers, Norman Morris of Powder Springs and Donald Morris of Lithia Springs; four sisters, Ernestine Hause of Huntsville, Ala.; Patricia Fields of Alpharetta; Annie Sue Trapnell of Marietta; Betty Lue Ludwig of Friendsville, Tenn.; and nine grandchildren.
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