Friends remember Faye Tillery
Published 7:15 pm Saturday, April 6, 2013

Darius Tillery embraces Suffolk Parks & Recreation director Lakita Watson on Saturday after presenting her with a plaque during the event that honored his mother, the 13th Annual C. Faye Tillery Community Cancer Awareness Day at the East Suffolk Recreation Center. The plaque celebrated Watson for her vision in founding the event.
For 13 years, a group of Parks and Recreation Department employees has remembered a beloved co-worker with a special annual community event in her honor.
This year, the people most responsible for keeping that memory alive were themselves honored.
Saturday marked the 13th year the C. Faye Tillery Community Cancer Awareness Day was held in Suffolk to remember Tillery’s life and the influence the beloved Suffolk Parks and Recreation employee had on everyone who knew her.
She died about 13 years ago from cervical cancer at the age of 37.
The Tillery family took the occasion of this year’s event to honor its founder, Parks and Recreation Director Lakita Watson, as well as three other employees who have helped run it over the years.
The occasion unfolded at the East Suffolk Recreation Center, where activities included youth and adult basketball games, contests and raffles to go with free food.
Presentations were made during halftime of an adult game between the Tillery family basketball team and a Parks and Recreation squad.
Tillery’s niece, Vonda Holman-Carter, helps coordinate the event for the family. She said the honorees she wanted “to let (the honorees) know that we appreciate it and to let Lakita know that her idea to do Faye Day wasn’t just an idea, it was a vision. And it was a vision that came to happen, which makes us happy that it has continued. I don’t think Lakita thought it would continue this long or get as big, but she’s promised me that it will continue.”
Watson was presented with a plaque commemorating her vision by Darius Tillery, who expressed his gratitude for her faithful role in keeping alive the memory of his mother, who died when he was only 5.
“I’m glad this year that we got a chance to celebrate her honoring my mom, because she doesn’t have to do this,” he said.
Watson recalled her relationship with Tillery.
“It is overwhelming and humbling to be recognized” by the family of a mentor, she said. “If it was not for her, I never would have gotten hired by Parks and Rec. She picked me up as a part-time employee, and she was in the gym when I used to play in the gym, so I really looked up to her, and it’s definitely an honor.”
Watson also received a citation from the city of Baltimore, where Holman-Carter works and a certificate, given to her by Suffolk Vice Mayor Charles Brown.
The other three Parks and Recreation employees honored were Tameka Williams, Joanne Turner and Jason Jones.
“It’s really an honor to kind of go into Faye’s footsteps,” Williams said. “Coming up through Parks and Recreation, I played in the youth league when she was in charge. It was fun. She always kept the kids in check, me being one of them.”
Turner reflected on Tillery and the day.
“Ask anyone who’s here,” she said. “Faye was a good girl. She was an honest girl, she was a willing girl, she was a hard worker. And it means a lot that, like (Councilman) Brown said, we can give back to our own and honestly say that we know her.”
Proceeds from the event will go to the Suffolk Rockin’ Relay for Life, an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society.