Obituary of Truman Everett Mays Jr.

Truman Everett Mays, Jr. passed peacefully on to the next life at Los Angeles County Hospital, California, in the early hours of April 17th, 2023 after suffering sudden heart failure. 

Truman was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 4, 1958, to his physician father, for whom he was named, and mother, Wanda. He was raised in Kentucky, and graduated from Lexington Henry Clay High School in 1981, then attended Georgetown College from where he graduated in with a BS majoring in Biology with a minor in Studio Arts. 

A talented painter from childhood, it is said that he made his father proud and broke his art professors’ hearts, when he chose to follow in the footsteps of his father and pursue a career in medicine. 

He graduated from the University of Louisville in 1983 with a Master’s Degree in Anatomy, and went on to graduate as a Doctor of Medicine in 1986. He then served residency in surgery at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas before entering practice in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

While living in New Orleans, he returned to his passion of painting under the name “Truman Marquez,” and won the first art competition he entered. He never stopped painting again. 

While continuing medical practice in Austin, Texas, Truman set up a studio in his garage, and from there, gained exhibition of his works in many New York and Los Angeles galleries. Retiring from Medicine in 2002 to pursue his art full time, over the coming years he hung work in many galleries, shows, and museums nationwide, and even worldwide.  Countless paintings created by his hand hang in both public and private collections across the nation. 

His last seven years of life were spent working from an artist’s loft studio in Los Angeles, California, where he spent the pandemic years painting furiously for an anticipated show for which all planned works were not yet compete at the time of his death. 

Truman was preceded in death by his father Truman Everett Mays, Sr. and his beloved younger brother Brad.  He is survived by his mother, Wanda Wolf Hamilton; his son Brandon, who works in commercial arts, and daughter Loren, who is a sworn police officer, in both of whom he is immensely proud; and his sisters, Liz Babb, Mary Jane Hines, Katharine Corder, and their families.  

A gathering of family and friends will be held for Truman on Saturday, June 24, 2023 from 12pm- 3pm at Clark Legacy Center, 601 E. Brannon Rd. Nicholasville, KY 40356.