Gwyneira Lloyd Hoke

Gwyneira Lloyd Hoke, 93, of Kannapolis, went to Heaven on July 10, 2024 following months of courageously battling cancer.

The family will receive friends at Lady’s Funeral Home in Kannapolis from 12:30 to 1:45 pm Saturday, July 13, 2024 with a service to follow at 2:00 pm. Dr. Dwayne Barber will officiate. Interment will follow at Carolina Memorial Park.

Born January 23, 1931 in Cwmamman, Wales to Evan John Lloyd and Mary Ann Davis Lloyd, Gwyn’s family moved to Watford, England during WWII. It was in Luton, England that she met, married, and started a family with the love of her life, Alvin, who was serving abroad in the U.S. Air Force. Gwyn and Alvin would move from England to Kannapolis in the early 1950s. She served as a homemaker and helped her husband operate Hoke’s Grocery on Wood Avenue in the Carver School community before going on to work for KMART, retiring in 1994 to help take care of her grandchildren. She was a longtime member of Kimball Memorial Lutheran Church prior to becoming a member of Rockwell Baptist Church in Mooresville.

She was “Memaw” to 11 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren (with one on the way), and 6 great-great-grandchildren. Additionally, she was an aunt to many nieces and nephews. Memaw’s house at 309 E. Universal St. was an oasis for the hungry and heavy-laden, and a refuge for the downtrodden, discouraged, and destitute. Her grandchildren will forever remember her oatmeal cookies, her teaching them to play “hunt the thimble,” and her providing endless encouragement to each of them. A talented seamstress, master gardener, and published Christian poet, above all things, she was known for her charity to her family and to complete strangers. She could often be quoted as saying that she only found true happiness when she had given her last dollar to someone in need. God certainly used this widow’s mite to show His love. The family cherishes Gwyn’s shining examples of love in action and takes comfort in the fact that she was, and is a born-again Christian, having received the forgiveness of sin through repentance towards God and faith in Jesus.

Gwyn was preceded in death by her husband, Alvin Meloy Hoke; daughter, Virginia Ann Brown; son, James Allen Hoke; sister, Jean Robbins; brother, Dennis Lloyd; and three grandchildren.

Survivors include her two sons, Michael Knox Hoke (Diane) of Kannapolis, and Steven Meloy Hoke (Tammy) of China Grove; daughter, Lana Jean Kennedy (Tim) of Concord; brother, Brian Lloyd (Yvonne) of Luton, England; and special family friends, Cliff Bittle and Annette Pope.

The family would like to acknowledge Lana, Tim, and Katie for the 24-hour care they provided to our precious matriarch in her final days. They would also like to acknowledge hospice nurse, Tara Loeb, and the numerous prayer warriors at the church for their help in the time of need.

Memorials may be made to Hospice & Palliative Care of Cabarrus County, 5003 Hospice Lane, Kannapolis, NC 28081.