Maxine Luttrell was born on June 22, 1928, in Elmhurst, Illinois. She was born to Robert Marquis Smith and Lenore Frances Ewers of Chicago, and was the younger sister of Donald Robert Smith of Barrington, Illinois. 

Maxine's father died when she was 2 years old of diphtheria, leaving her mother with the task of working full time to support the family. Consequently, her mother placed Maxine and Donald in the Masonic Orphans Home in LaGrange, Illinois, from age 3-13. She had fond memories of growing up in the orphanage, which housed approximately 400 orphans at the time. She made great friends there, and fondly remembered her "Ma and Pa" who ran the orphanage.

In 1941, she left the orphanage at age 13 when her mother married her stepfather, Samuel Ramp. She lived her teenage years in Evanston, IL, and graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1946. After graduation, she attended a 2-year secretarial school in Florida, made new friends, and returned to Chicago to take a job as executive secretary for A. C. Nielsen, a marketing research, audience measurement, and engineering performance survey company. It was during her employment there that she met her future husband, Edgar (Ed) A. Luttrell.

Maxine and Ed married on September 29, 1951, in Chicago. They honeymooned in Hot Springs, Arkansas, enjoying the natural hot springs bath houses and the mountain scenery of the Ouachita Mountains. The warm climate of Florida and Arkansas lured Maxine and Ed to leave Chicago and relocate to Denton, Texas, where Ed continued working as an auditor for A. C. Nielsen.

Maxine became pregnant with her first child, Paul, and the young couple soon moved from Denton to Dallas, when Ed took a job with a new, start-up company, Texas Instruments, at the first Dallas plant on Lemmon Avenue. They bought their first home on 10218 Kilkenny Place in the Casa View area of Dallas.

Paul was born in 1952, soon followed by Jean in 1954, and Bruce in 1956. When Paul was born, Maxine left A. C. Nielsen to become a stay-at-home mom and raise her children, as was customary at that time. Maxine and Ed lived on Kilkenny Place in a brand new, but small home, from 1952-1961. When Maxine became pregnant for the fourth time, they knew they were running out of space for their growing family. 

Their fourth child, Cliff, was born in 1961, prompting Maxine and Ed to move to a North Dallas neighborhood under development in a new area called Lake Highlands. 9314 Larchwood Drive became their home where they would raise their four children and live for 54 years until Ed's passing in 2015.

After spending 22 years at home raising her children, Maxine decided to go back to work, in 1974 when her youngest son, Cliff, started seventh grade. Because her exceptional skills in typing and shorthand as an executive secretary were now obsolete, she took a sales job at J. C. Penney at NorthPark Center. She loved her job in the Fine Jewelry department, and stayed there for twelve years. In 1986, she changed jobs to work in the Customer Service department at Sears Richardson Square. She and Ed jointly decided she should retire from full-time work in 1992, at 64 years of age.

After retiring, she began volunteering at Doctor's Hospital every Thursday. For a short time, she also volunteered in the Food Pantry for Network of Community Ministries, processing food donations to the needy. Her dedication and passion for service continued for the next 23 years, until 2015, at age 87.

Maxine was the ultimate mother to her children and a devoted wife to Ed. Her family was the center of her universe. She spent countless hours watching her children water ski, and attending band concerts, piano recitals, and soccer games. Her level of devotion and attention to her children is unparalleled.

As her children grew up, got married, and started their own families, Maxine assumed the role of mother-in-law, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She loved and supported each of them, life-long.                                                                                                                                                                              ,

In 2019, at the age of 91, Maxine could no longer stay in her home. She sold her home and moved to assisted living, where she lived for 19 months. When COVID invaded our country, she actually contracted and survived the virus, and had to be moved for the last time to a memory care facility where she would live out the remainder of her days for 4 & 1/2 years.

  Maxine was a Christian, raising her children in the Christian church, teaching Sunday School to toddlers early on, and going to church with Ed. She was a strong believer, imparting and exemplifying her Christian values to all those who knew her. She was the primary caregiver to Ed in his final years. She loved playing cards, especially Canasta, and board games with her family. She retained her sense of humor until the end. She passed peacefully and painlessly in her sleep on October, 13, 2025 at the age of 97. She is survived by her four children, their spouses, 1O grandchildren and spouses, and 19 great-grandchildren