Mr. Keith Rondell Townsend was born on Jan. 21, 1973, to Alice and Mitchell Townsend in Bloxom and transitioned on July 22, 2026, in Salisbury, Md.
He received his education from Accomack County Public Schools, where he excelled in sports, school spirit, and education — graduating within the top 10 of his class. “I’m sexy, I’m fun, I’m a graduate of the class of ‘91,” he would often say.
Keith spent his high school summers working at NASA and with youth at Parks and Recreation.
After high school, he studied at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Later, he worked at various administrative positions at the Virginia Department of Housing, Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement, Behavioral Healthcare Center, and Virginia Employment Commission, but none gave him more joy than working with Dr. Kimberly Poole-Sykes at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Keith enjoyed cooking awesome meals for his family, any and all sports, and arguing his point in politics.
Besides his parents, Alice and Mitchell Townsend, of Bloxom, he leaves to cherish joyful, comical memories three brothers, Mitchell Townsend (Patricia), of Tappahannock, Thomas Townsend, of Bloxom, and Lamar Townsend, of Richmond; two special friends, Arthur Graves, of Greensboro, N.C., and Gwendolyn Johnson, of Richmond; an aunt, Ineta McLaughlin, of Parksley; three uncles, Rudolph Handy (Jackie), of Umatilla, Fla., Roger Mason, of Makemie Park, and Willie Mason (Faith), of Princess Anne, Md.; and a host of cousins, friends, and coworkers.
A funeral service to honor Keith’s life will be conducted from the chapel of the Williams-Parksley Funeral Home on Friday, July 31, at noon. There will be a visitation and viewing one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Interment will be private in the Macedonia Baptist Church Cemetery in Bloxom.
Memory tributes may be shared at www.williamsfuneralhomes.com
Arrangements are by the Williams-Parksley Funeral Home.
