On April 5, 1923, in Talladega County, alabama, Daisy Lucille McElderry was born to the parentage of Gus McElderry and Selonia McElderry Groce. She was educated in the Talladega County School System, where she excelled and skipped a couple of grades. Daisy (best known as Lucille) was baptized at the Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Munford, Alabama. She married Elijah Joe Colley in 1945, and to this union one daughter, Margaret, was born. The couple moved to Anniston in November of 1947 and became active members of the Seventeenth Street Missionary Baptist Church.

Mrs. Colley operated a home-based business as a seamstress and bult a reputation for custom-fitting her clients. Mrs. Colley also taught kindergarten at the Seventeenth Street Missionary Baptist Church School for several years and then operated a home daycare. She later worked for the State of Alabama and retired in 1989 from the Department of Human Resources as the Supervisor of Homemakers.

Mrs. Clley served her church in many capacities that included: Past President of the General Missionary Society, Sunday School teacher, Baptist Training Union teacher, Sunbeam band nd Junior Red Circle Director for children and teens, member of the Lily Pearl and Minnie Ball Circles, Pastor's Aides, C.M. Thomas Chorale, Flower Club and delivery of Love Meals. She was president of the Cooper Elementary School PTA for 11 years. She alw volunteered with the Anniston City Schools well into her 80s. Mrs. Colley was a member of the Snow Creek District Baptist Association, the Ideal Friends 118 Order of Eastern Star, a life member of the Ladies Auxillary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a charter member of the American Legion Auxillary #312 and the Aurora Club. She had the gift of service and faithfully attended to the needs ofthe sick and shut-in throughout the years.

Mrs. Colley was preceded in death by: her parents; her husband, Elijah "Smokey Joe" ;and her siblings, Otis Tarrant, Willie James McElderry, Edna McElderry Jones and Dorthula McElderry Miller.

Survivors include: her daughter, Margaret Zakiyyah Colley Day, Upper Marlboro, Maryland; one sister, Earnestine Cooley of Munford, Alabama; one sister-in-law, Hazel Forbes of Munford, Alabama; two grandsons, Bakari Khalid (Sade) of Hyattsville, Maryland and Nosakhere Khalid "Amanda" of Upper Marlboro, Maryland; two great-grandchildren' one great, great-grandchild; and a host of other loving relatives and friends.