Deya Gayle was born on November 23rd, 1985, at Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to her parents, Evelyn Twyman and Demario Richard. She departed this life on October 16th, 2026. She was affectionately known as Dinker. She was an energetic and loving child. Deya was a bright spark in her family, loving and caring to her only sibling, Demario Richard, who predeceased her.
Her early education began at DeMillie Middle School in Long Beach, California, from 1998 to 2000, where she was deemed a good basketball player. She attended Lakewood High School in California from 2000 to 2003. On leaving high school, she was enrolled into the health field, where she became an EMS paramedic.
Her life’s motto was “If I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living will not be in vain.”
She migrated to Georgia in 2010, where she married Novar Gayle and started a new life. After moving to Virginia in 2012, she worked at Ferguson from 2013 to 2020 as Accounts Payable Coordinator- Vendor Programs, where she worked with many large vendors from all across the country. From 2023 to 2025, she worked with Hampton Roads Community Action Program, a regional non-profit social service organization that helps low-income individuals achieve self-sufficiency and overcome economic hardships. She excelled there and had the opportunity to help underprivileged people and those in need. She worked alongside local congressmen to develop programs to ensure the constant funding of housing for low-income families.
Deya leaves to cherish her memory and her short life: her mother, Evelyn Twyman; husband, Novar Gayle; two daughters, Mahalia Jackson and Josephine Gayle; one son, Jamel Jackson; grandson, Elijah Novar Jackson; grandmother, Pamela Jackson; grandfather, Walter Brown; mother-in-law, Lois Davis; aunts, Tammy Newman, Vickie Barnett, and Brenda Richard; uncles Larry Jordan and Nikki Rickard; and many more cousins, friends, and loved ones.
A funeral service will be held on Monday, November 16, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church, followed by interment at 2:00 p.m. at Albert G. Horton, Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery.
The pleasure of life is not its beauty, but its duty. A person’s life is not measured by its duration, but by its donation. Life is not displayed by its wealth, but its health. What I liked most about Deya was not her struggles, but her triumph. She had not conquered all, but you will agree with me: “she fought well.”