Paying tribute to two longtime friends who recently passed away

Miami Herald

24-04-2025

I am living at a time when I am attending more and more funerals of friends. Just recently, two longtime friends died only days apart. Ivey Kearson died April 8, and Marcia Johnson Martin Saunders died a few days later, on April 21.
A litany service for Ivey was held last Monday, followed by a Celebration of Life on Tuesday at The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Liberty City, where he was a dedicated member.
There was no written obituary in Ivey's funeral program. Instead, strictly in Ivey's style, there was a six-page, abbreviated story of his life, his accomplishments and failures told in his words, and in his way. The title: 'I Did it My Way.'
Between each line on each page were bits and pieces of a life well-lived, from his Overtown birth to his days at Dorsey Junior High School, Northwestern High (class of 1964), Kentucky State University and Florida A&M University, where he graduated in 1969, and where he met his first wife and the mother of their son, Ivey Christopher Kearson III.
Before he went to work for the city of Miami in 1979, Ivey had stints as a high school teacher, an airline reservation clerk, a counselor at a treatment facility and a business developer with New Washington Heights Community Development Corporation. With the city of Miami, Ivey said, he was 'tasked' with preserving some of the historic structures in the Overtown community. He also served as the director of the Overtown Neighborhood Jobs Program (OJP), which became so successful under his direction that it was expanded citywide as the City of Miami Neighborhood Jobs Program (NJP).
He met the former Linda Vickers in 1979 and said they cultivated a relationship that started as friends and blossomed into a once-in-a-lifetime love story. They married in 1988 and blended their family, which included Ivey's son Chris and Linda's daughter from a previous union, Kelli Vickers Gay . He called Linda the 'heart and soul of my being' and marveled at the fact that they were best friends as well as husband and wife.
Friends of Ivey and Linda describe the couple as 'hand-in-glove.' They complemented each other. To Ivey, it seemed Linda could do no wrong. It was the same with Linda, about Ivey.
Marcia and Ivey were the kind of people who left their mark on you: Once you meet them and get to know them, you never forget them. While Ivey was a dapper, laugh-out-loud kind of guy, Marcia was soft-spoken and rather laid back. But hidden beneath that softness was a steel rose.
In their lifetime, Ivey and Marcia were simply ordinary people who loved other human beings and showed their love by trying to uplift their community and give its people a better status in life. By doing so, they left their mark on my life, and many others.
I met Ivey Kearson about 30 years ago. I was drawn to him because he reminded me of my only brother, Adam. I had met Linda several years before.
Marcia and I became friends while we were attending Booker T. (as we referred to the school). I was a senior and she was a sophomore. We both were majorettes with BTW's Marching 100 - I held up the end of our line, and Marcia marched beside me on the inside. We became friends and remained so until her death.
Both Ivey and Marcia were proud members of the Overtown community. Both were born in the area, then known to some as the Central Negro District or Colored Town.
Ivey was the youngest of his siblings, while Marcia was the only child of the late Donald and Doris Brown Ward Johnson. Both of their families doted on them.
After elementary school, Marcia entered Booker T. Washington Jr./Sr. High school, where she was elected 'Miss BTW' and graduated with honors in 1958. She went on to Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where she earned a bachelors in Elementary Education in 1962. She also studied at the University of Miami.
After graduating from Hampton, Marcia got her first job as a teacher at Dunbar Elementary School. She later married Montez C. Martin Jr., who was in the military. For seven years she traveled with him to his military assignments at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and Mount Vernon, New York, and taught in military schools. During this time, the couple welcomed their daughters, Tanya Elayne Martin Pekel, (who preceded her in death in 2026), and Terrie Lanita.
Back home in Miami, Marcia decided to pursue a different caree, and became a coordinator for Miami-Dade Community College's New Careers Job Training Program, where she trained and empowered her students to reach their full potential.
Marcia had a great sense of humor and dressed elegantly. She loved people and they loved her back, because she always had a ready smile and encouraging words to impart. She went about her work diligently and with a determined spirit. And in 1971, she was appointed as the first director of the county's Black Affairs Office, which was created to increase the Black community's access to county government services and programs.
Marcia was a devoted Christian and a longtime member of The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, where she served as a member of the Episcopal Church Women, The Order of The Daughters of the King, the Vestry Board and many other church organizations.
She was a proud and dedicated member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Dade County Chapter of The Links, the United Way, the Urban League of Greater Miami and many more organizations.
She was as tough as she was gentle. She proved her toughness during the 1980 riot, which erupted after a Tampa judge acquitted the four police officers who brutally beat to death insurance salesman Arthur McDuffie. Marcia, along with the late Rev. J. Kenneth Major, then rector of The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, were among several community leaders who played a pivotal role in helping to calm the community during the unrest.
Marcia joined other community leaders like the late Georgia Jones Ayers and the late Congresswoman Carrie Meek in calming the protesters and urging them to get off the streets.
She was highly respected for her unwavering commitment to excellence and fairness. And in 1983, she was promoted to director of the Fair Employment Practices and Diversity Program for Miami-Dade County. Marcia's office had jurisdiction over resolving grievances, mediating conflicts and overseeing the county's affirmative action programs. She was often called on to mediate community disputes and testify in state and federal courts on matters related to affirmative action, sexual harassment and employment practices.
Her influence went beyond Miami Dade County. Marcia was appointed to the United States 11th District Circuit Judicial Nomination Commission, which helps select federal judges in Florida. She also served on the State University System of Florida's Equal Opportunity Committee. She had served Miami-Dade County for more than 30 years when she retired in 2003.
'Her greatest joy was becoming a grandmother,' said her daughter, Terrie Rayburn. 'She traveled frequently to attend her six grandchildren's events, always with her camera in hand.'
In addition to daughter Terrie (Wendell), Marcia is survived by son-in-law Kent Pekel; grandchildren Taylor Rayburn, Lauren Oubre Fermin (Oelmis), Carter Rayburn, Adam Pekel, Sydney Rayburn, and Victoria Pekel, and many beloved relative and cherished friends, including lifelong friends Maud Newbold and Patricia McCartney.
A litany service will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday followed by a funeral service at 10 a.m. Friday at The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation at 1835 NW 54th St.