06/27/2025
On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, God wrapped his arms around her to gently es**rt Juanita Dawn Seay Hicks Harlow to her eternal rest.
She was born on September 9, 1934, to John Albert and Marion Elizabeth Coffey Seay. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, George Eugene Seay and his wife, Jean; as well as two husbands, Clyde Hicks and Charles Harlow; and a sister-in-law, Janet.
Juanita retired from CVTC after years of service as a health care provider and charge aide. She was also a sales associate, room mother, seamstress, and monogrammer. She was also a member of the fine arts club as well as the garden club.
She enjoyed Christmas, the Beach, playing cards, reading, cooking, antiques, sewing, embroidery, gardening, ghost exploration, drawing, painting, dolls, frogs, turtles, history (especially Lynchburg History). She also enjoyed watching the movies Gone with the Wind, South Pacific, and Dr. Zhivago.
She leaves behind to cherish her memory; a sister, Jerri and husband, Raymond and their family; and a sister-in-law, Patricia and family as well as two daughters, Alice Dawn Hicks Phillips Leftwich Phelps of Madison Heights, Va and Roxanne Hicks of Lynchburg, VA. Two grandchildren, Angelia and her consort Scott and John and his wife, Carrie. Four great-grandchildren, CJ, Haleigh, Willow, and Ava. There is also a numerous amount of stepchildren and their families as well as a large amount of extended family and friends that love her.
She loved working with her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles on the farm and with animals. She also enjoyed working with her grandfather in the blacksmith shop. She had numerous amounts of cousins she enjoyed playing with as well as the children in the neighborhood.
Juanita was a member of Park View Methodist Church on Memorial Avenue, which her father helped with the relocation of the church from downtown Lynchburg. She later became a member of Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church.
Juanita was a member of the last graduating class of the original E.C. Glass High School on Park Avenue in 1953.
She was married in 1953 and remarried in 1979.
During her 90 years of life, she performed as Mrs. Santa at Pittman Plaza in Lynchburg, VA for over 30 years and through three generations. She was deemed a Lynchburg Legend in 2023 and has had multiple newspaper articles written about her opening the Christmas Season not only in Lynchburg, VA but also Richmond, VA where she arrived via helicopter. The News and Daily Advanced wrote articles about Mrs. Clause named “The Children waiting all year to see Mrs. Claus with photos by Jimmy Ripley. She also designed, wrote, and illustrated her own coloring books to give to the kids that came to see her.
During her nine decades, she watched Lynchburg grow and expand only to find out that what she did for entertainment in the 1950s was the same thing that was being done for entertainment in the 1990s. The only things that changed were the names of places and what it was called, Dragging the Drain, and the area had expanded several miles.
On her first date with Charles, she carried a chaperone with her that was dropped off at Fort Theater to see the movie Grease. Juanita and Charles went to the Brookville Fireman’s Fair. How fitting that she went home just a few days after the Fireman’s Fair this year.
I may have champagne taste, but I have a Kool-Aid pocketbook and TO ME MY MAMA is PRICELESS!!!
In lieu of flowers please make donations to The Blue Ridge Christmas Cottage on Facebook or Saint Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in the name of Juanita S. Harlow.
A memorial will be held from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M. on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at Davis-Turner Funeral Service. Service of comfort rendered by Davis-Turner Funeral Service.
