Mrs. Mary Lucille DeVane Emanuel

January 27, 1930 - March 15, 2021

TAMPA - Mrs. Mary Lucille DeVane Emanuel, 91, passed away Sunday, March 14, 2021 at her home in Tampa, FL. Mrs. Emanuel was born January 27, 1930 in Portsmouth, VA where she graduated from Oceana High School in 1948, and later attended the University of South Florida taking Real Estate and Insurance Agent courses to further her career. She loved working and especially being around people, and being able to help others in whatever way she may be of any assistance. Her primary occupation throughout her working career was with the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, where she worked as a Nursing Assistant and also a bookkeeper, retiring after a long tenure in 1993. Mrs. Emanuel loved to dance, and when the music came on the right song, she would take the spotlight doing the jitterbug. Her family and friends were very important to her that she showed both in her personal and working life. She loved to share many items she made through her sewing talent with her family, and being from a small family in her younger years, she loved being a part of the large DeVane family of Fort Meade. Mrs. Emanuel was preceded in death by her parents, Bob and Polly Marshall Powell; husbands, Robert A. "Bobby" DeVane, and Ernest Emanuel; daughter, Deborah Annette Rodgers. She is survived by her son, Robert Lee Grace, III, Middleburg, FL; Kathy DeVane Pate, Tampa, FL; brother-in-law, Floyd DeVane, Fort Meade, FL; sister-in-law, Freida Martin and Jenny Morris, both of Bartow, FL, and Lucille Mitchell, Fort Meade, FL; grandchildren, Marshall Allen Pate and Mary Amelia Pate; great-grandchildren, Jordan Allen Pate and Aubreyanna Pate. Visitation will be held from 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., Friday, March 19, 2021 at Hancock Funeral Home, 945 East Broadway, Fort Meade, FL. Funeral services will follow in the funeral home chapel at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow in Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Meade. Hancock Funeral Home, Fort Meade, FL 863-285-8171