Vivian J. Boyd McLaughlin, was born on March 12, 1946, In Vance County, North Carolina, to the late Amy Ruth Brown Boyd and Marvin Kermit Boyd. She attended the Warren County Public Schools Warren County, North Carolina. After graduating from high school, she pursued her academic studies at Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia and North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina.

She married Dennis McLaughlin on December 16, 1967. To this union four children were born. Felicia Juanita McLaughlin preceded her in death. She leaves to mourn her memory, three sons; Samuel Maurice McLaughlin, Andre' Dennis Mclaughlin, and David Marvin Jerome McLaughlin of New Jersey; Daughter in-laws Angel R. McLaughlin and Daneane E. McLaughlin; three sisters, Lucy M. Thompson, La Plata, Maryland, Louise M. Gentle, Bloomfield, New Jersey and Marianne David, Piscataway, New Jersey; grandchildren Emmary F. McLaughlin, Andre' D. McLaughlin Jr., Mason D. McLaughlin and Maverick P. McLaughlin; nieces and nephews; Mark A. and Porsche L. Pettiford, Franklin Park, New Jersey, Lathel A. Sutton, Piscataway, New Jersey, Byan A. Pettiford, Lebanon, New Jersey, Keith D. Gentle II and Amanda L. Gentle, West Orange, New Jersey, Ashley E. Thompson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Alicia N. Simon, Piscataway, New Jersey, Raymond M. Thompson, La Plata, Maryland and a host of great nieces & nephews, cousins, relatives and friends.

In 1954, she accepted Jesus Christ at the tender age of 8. As a teenager in North Carolina, she taught Sunday School and attended several Baptist Training Union conferences as a delegate for Coley's Spring Baptist Church. She was a faithful member of Coley's Spring Babtist Church, Afton, North Carolina for fifteen years prior to her marriage.

Vivian was a member of Newark Gospel Tabernacle Church for over twenty years where she served as a Deaconess, and a Sunday school Teacher. She later became a member of Faith Fellowship Ministries where she was a faithful member for over twenty-eight years.