Maxine Fortenberry

Maxine Fortenberry is a minor character featured in the "Southern Vampire Mysteries" series of novels by author Charlaine Harris. She is also featured on the HBO television adaptation of the novels True Blood where she is played by actress Dale Raoul. She first appeared in the fourth episode of season one, "Escape from Dragon House".

Biography
Maxine Fortenberry is a nosy, busybody who lives in the town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. She is a member of several social groups including the Descendants of the Glorious Dead and the local parish church group. She is formerly a friend of the late Adele Stackhouse and the mother of Hoyt Fortenberry. Maxine's husband committed suicide while Hoyt was still a young boy, but Maxine lied about what had happened and told Hoyt that his father had abandoned him. It would be years before Hoyt would ever learn the truth about his father.

Nothing ever happened in Bon Temps without Maxine taking a special interest in it. When Adele Stackhouse invited vampire Bill Compton to speak at their Descendants of the Glorious Dead meeting, Maxine made sure to get a front row seat. She wondered if the presence of a cross would cause the vampire undue stress, but as it turned out, it did not.

After Adele Stackhouse was savagely murdered by a serial killer, Maxine extended her condolences to Adele's granddaughter, Sookie Stackhouse, and brought a tuna casserole over to her house. Sookie suffered an emotional break at this time and yelled at Maxine for moving one of her grandmother's pies in the fridge. Sookie possessed telepathic abilities and could read Maxine's uncomplimentary thoughts about her.

It eventually came to pass that Hoyt Fortenberry began dating a young vampire girl named Jessica Hamby. Maxine loathed Jessica and went to great lengths to sabotage their relationship. She tried setting Hoyt up with different girls, but he was committed towards his relationship with Jessica. On one instance, Jessica succumbed to her vampiric bloodlust and attacked Maxine, drinking her blood. Following which, Maxine disowned Hoyt, declaring that he was no longer her son.

Looking to fill the void left behind by her absent son, Maxine took young Tommy Mickens into her household. Unbeknownst to Maxine, Tommy was a shape-shifter and was the younger brother of pub owner Sam Merlotte. Following a shooting incident with his brother, Tommy appeared to turn over a new leaf and Maxine took the boy under her wing, teaching him how to read and educating him on the Bible. In truth however, Tommy was merely running a scam on Maxine as he had become aware that her land was rich with valuable natural gas deposits. Tommy even assumed Maxine's form for a while in order to sell off the land rights for a tidy sum of cash. Due to external circumstances however, Tommy Mickens was killed by a werewolf named Marcus Bozeman. Maxine was quite bothered to learn that Tommy had taken to wearing her clothes and makeup, even her undergarments, though she had no idea that he was a shape-shifter.