Queen Esther Quinn, 91, of Clinton, Maryland.

Queen Esther Quinn was born on December 30, 1930, in Abbeville, Georgia, to Fannie Lou Bradshaw (deceased) and Walter Bradshaw (deceased). Queen was the youngest Bradshaw daughter. Her sister, Janet LaVern Bradley, now 94 years old, lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Young Queen grew up in the segregated south in the small town of Abbeville, which had a population of slightly more than 1,000 people. She attended grammar school there and, sometime thereafter, her parents relocated to Augusta, Georgia, where she was raised.

During the summers, vacations, and holidays, the family would often travel 150 miles to Abbeville to visit relatives and friends. During those middle childhood years, she became fast friends with a young boy named Lonnie, who was also born and raised in Abbeville. Queen and Lonnie would spend time together visiting their respective family members, going to church, Bible study, and drive-in movies, when they were between seven and eight years old.

Back in Augusta, Queen attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, A. R. Johnson Junior High School, and Lucy C. Laney High School. As a long-life member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church, she was actively involved in the church and choir; in fact, she was in the same choir as opera star Jessye Norman.

After high school, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and attended business school. This was during the segregation era, so there were no technical schools for her to attend in Augusta.

After business school, Queen left Atlanta and returned to Augusta, where she secured a full-time job at a popular hair salon on Central Avenue. During that same period, she worked part-time as a substitute teacher at the former Ursula Collins Elementary School; she later secured a full-time job as a nursing assistant at the city's well-known medical establishment, University Hospital, where she started her lifelong career in nursing. At some point during that decade, she moved to Chicago for two years to further her education at one of the local community colleges.

Around that same time, Queen and the young boy she had first met at seven years old, Lonnie from Abbeville, married on September 22, 1952, in Florida. Lonnie was serving in the Korean War, for which he later received a Purple Heart, among other medals for his outstanding service in the United States Army.

Now married, Queen and Lonnie resided in Augusta and had three children: Lonnie Edward Quinn Jr., who was born in 1952, followed by their first daughter, Vanessa Elaine Quinn, three years later; and the youngest daughter, Gwendolyn Denise Quinn, who was born five years later. Queen raised her children and continued to work full-time.

In the early 1960s, Queen and Lonnie moved up north to Brick City, Newark, New Jersey to pursue career advancement and create a better life for their children. Queen secured a nursing position at Saint Barnabas Hospital.

Not long after the violent four-day riots in Newark in 1967, Queen and Lonnie packed up their belongings and moved the family to Washington, D.C., where Queen found employment at Cafritz Hospital, later renamed Greater Southeast Community Hospital, where she worked for more than a decade. The family later settled in nearby Prince George's County, Maryland.

In the early 1980s, Queen returned to Augusta to care for her mother, Fannie Lou Bradshaw. After her mother's passing, on September 20, 1984, Queen remained in Augusta and continued working, eventually taking early retirement from the Medical College of Georgia in 1994.

She stayed in Augusta for seven years after she retired. In February 2001, then 70 years old, she moved back to Clinton, Maryland, to be with her family. During this period, she spent a lot of time with her husband and children, joined the Camp Springs Senior Activity Center, traveled with her family, and joined Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, where she became a member of the choir and the usher board.

Queen loved watching professional sports, especially basketball and football. She was a huge fan of the Washington Redskins, now The Commanders. She enjoyed decorative design and handicrafts, including canvas work, painting, crocheting, embroidery, knitting, quilting, ribbon embroidery, sewing, pottery, and sculpture. She also had a green thumb.

Queen was an exceptional mother and sacrificed many things to provide for her family. She was an excellent cook, and she did everything she could for her children.

Years later, on February 25, 2020, she lost her husband and soulmate of 68 years. She had known Lonnie for 84 years of her life; September 22, 2022, would have marked 70 years of marriage for the couple.

Queen leaves to mourn her loving sister, Janet LaVern Bradley; her son, Lonnie E. Quinn, Jr. (Heidrun Quinn) of Kissimmee, FL; her daughters Vanessa E. Quinn (Kermit Banks) and Gwendolyn Quinn of Clinton, MD; her granddaughter, Danielle Quinn of Raleigh, NC; her cousin, Betty Pickett of Augusta, GA; two sisters-in-law, Alpha Lacy of Kissimmee, FL, and Latrice Lacy of Cocoa Beach, FL; and a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins

Viewing, 10:00 a.m. until time of the Life Celebration, 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 21, 2022 in the Chapel of Thornton Funeral Home, P.A., 3439 Livingston Road, Indian Head, Maryland 20640.  Interment, Maryland Veterans Cemetery, 11301 Crain Highway, Cheltenham, Maryland 20623, date will be determined at a later time.