Cynthia Celeste Moore

A diamond uncut, she brought forth a unique and dynamic personality that impacted every person that ever met her. As a free spirit, Cynthia took an unconventional path through life, attending Lakeside High School before transferring to Clarkston Adult with the intention of expediting her arrival into adulthood. She wed Ricky Lee McClung two days after she turned seventeen, on November 23rd, 1974. They settled briefly in Brookhaven, GA before welcoming their first child, David Lee McClung in 1982. Their travels took them to Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Nashville, Tennessee, where they had their second child, Mary Caroline McClung in 1985. Eventually, they settled back in Atlanta.

Cynthia was a force of nature with a spirit not quite tailored for this world. She was outrageously inappropriate, wild, reckless, tragically beautiful, deeply empathetic, and woefully complicated. For many years Cynthia sought to live life to the fullest, dancing barefoot to the beat of her own drum, often covered in glitter, with no regard for the next day.

She intimately knew what it was like to suffer, to lose, to wholeheartedly crash and burn, and she sought to lessen that pain for others. Cynthia taught her children to prioritize kindness, to look at the person beneath their response, and to recognize the human in all of us before casting judgement. That no one makes it out of this world unscathed, and it costs nothing to lessen someone’s burden. Cynthia exemplified that remorse counts, and grace should be extended to those struggling to be a better person today than they were yesterday.

Cynthia cultivated a foundation of unconditional love and support, and encouraged exploration for those she cared for in all avenues of creativity and interests. She spent many years as a nomad, going where she felt she was needed most. Her door, or tent flap, was open to anyone in need of a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. Cynthia was known to have a nurturing spirit and spent her later years as a caregiver for her own mother. After her mother passed away in February of this year, she found herself content in solitude, an avid watcher of birds.

In her passing, she leaves behind memories that invoke laughter, inspire declarations of love, and promote a thorough appreciation for the language, the poetry of music and how it awakens the soul and connects us to one another and life itself.

Cynthia was preceded in death by her second daughter who was born sleeping; grandparents James Henry Strickland and Minnie Lucille McQuaig Strickland Bennett and Ethel Daphne Corbett and Owen Matthew Thrift; step-grandparents Roy Harvard Bennett and Mary Lou Thrift; parents Henrietta Strickland Brocato and Daniel Jackson Thrift; step-father Henry Anthony Brocato; uncles James Henry, Arthur Wade and Louis Wynn Strickland; and her beloved white sibling toy poodles JoJo and Princess Coco of Toto.

In passing, she leaves behind her step-mother Donna Day Woerhide Thrift of Marietta; previous spouse Rick McClung of Mount Olive, NC; sister Sara Lucretia Thrift of Atlanta; children David Lee (Katie) McClung of Asheville, NC, Mary Caroline (Bryce Shepherd) Brantley of Mount Olive, NC; grandchildren Phoenix Danger Brantley, Gavin Rockwell Brantley, Zora May McClung, Violet Minnette Brantley, Julian Moon McClung, and Winter Rosalie Shepherd; aunts Linda (Jimmy), Faye (Wade) and Wilda (Louis) Strickland; cousins, Alan (Michelle) Strickland, Karen (James) Strickland Ammons; Patti (Toby) Strickland Cameron; Jan McQuaig Nisbet; Wayne McQuaig; and Mary Francis (Buck) McQuaig Johnson.

There are no services scheduled at this time. Please honor her memory by playing your favorite song. Play it loud, she did!