Debbie was born February 17, 1959, to Robert Essary and Lois Jacqueline Davis Essary, both natives of east Tennessee. The family lived in Woodbridge, Virginia, when Debbie was growing up and later moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she lived the rest of her life.
Debbie graduated from Frostburg State University in Maryland with a degree in art. Debbie had a variety of interests. For many years she volunteered through her church, Pathways Baptist, in a community ministry group, Friends in Action (later known as Interfaith Works). At various points in her life, she sang in her church choir and participated in a photography group. She was an avid reader of novels, loved cats, collected dolls as a hobby, and enjoyed traveling to new places. Social media allowed her to connect and keep in contact with friends and family across the U.S. in recent years.
Debbie was preceded in death by both of her parents and by an infant sister, Jennifer. She was close with her father, and was devastated by his death in 1982 in the crash of Air Florida Flight 90. She is survived by an aunt, Kathleen Davis Baggett, of Gardendale, Alabama; uncle Roy Davis, of Crossville, Tennessee; and a number of cousins on both the Davis and Essary sides of her family.
Funeral services will be held at Snowden Funeral Home in Rockville, Maryland, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, with a visitation at 11 and funeral at noon. An additional service will be held on Friday, Oct. 23 at Coffey Funeral Home in Tazewell, Tennessee, with visitation at 11 and funeral at noon. Burial will follow at the Irish Cemetery in Tazewell.
