Jay Maynard Finley

Services for Jay Maynard Finley, 53, of Ore City, will be held on Friday, January 4, 2013, at 10 A.M. at First United Methodist Church with Reverend Dick Dobbins officiating. Burial will be in Gladewater Memorial Park. Jay was born in Beaumont, Texas, and grew up in Houston, and moved to Gladewater with his family in 1969. He graduated from Gladewater High School in 1977 and attended Texas A&M his freshman year and went on to earn his Associates Degree in Golf Course Maintenance from Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas. Jay was employed in golf course maintenance on golf courses in Austin, Colorado City, and in Longview, Texas, and was currently employed at Eastgate Apartments in Gladewater as maintenance supervisor. He will be remembered for his love of family and Nature. He loved to fish, hunt, and golf. Family gatherings involved watching the sunset from his dock at Lake of the Pines and he never missed a chance to challenge others in the family to a game of "42." Jay looked forward to visits to Grandpa Hall"s farm and granddad Finley"s lake, again enjoying God"s great outdoors. From the time of 4th grade when the family moved to Gladewater until high school graduation , Jay attended Sunday School and Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) here at First United Methodist Church. He was baptized and confirmed with his class and had a close relationship with God. Jay always had a story to tell which made us all laugh. He loved his nephews and nieces and they loved their "Uncle Jay!" He will be sorely missed here on earth but we look forward to a great reunion with him in Heaven some day. He is survived by his mother, Mattie Finley Gondran; step-father, Jerry Gondran; sister, Terri Finley Sherman and husband Mark and their children, Jack and Hannah; brother, David Finley and wife Mandy and their children, Mattie Elizabeth and Samuel David. Also surviving him is Barbara Finley, once his wife, always his soul mate. He was preceded in death by his father, Jack Maynard Finley; grandparents, Vivian and Maynard Finley and Willie Mae and Jim Hall. Family visitation will be from 6 to 8 P.M. on Thursday, January 3, 2013, at Croley Funeral Home in Gladewater.