b. September 5, 1947

by Mary Fry Edmunds Haywood, St. Stephen’s Church, Durham

Olivia Taylor Feduccia has been a driving force in keeping two Vance County churches alive. A member of the Historic Properties Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, she has served faithfully for many years on the Committee of St. John’s, Williamsboro, the state’s oldest frame church (1772), where many of her ancestors are buried. She has been untiring in her devotion to that historic church, dealing with details, from cleaning the church to arranging altar paraments and preparing the Eucharist – not only for St. John’s, but for another historic church where regular services were held during her youth: Holy Trinity, Townsville.

The land for Holy Trinity was given by the family of Olivia’s grandmother, Allene Hargrove Taylor. Her grandfather, Edward Osborne Taylor, supervised its building in 1914-15, riding daily to the site on his horse Dan. Olivia, her parents, and her two sisters attended services there during her youth, but eventually the number of communicants as well as the number of services dwindled, and in 1993 the doors closed. Although it stood unused for years, Olivia was determined that it live on. She worked with Historic Properties Commission chairman, the Rev. Canon E. T. Malone, Jr., to reopen the doors, and the first of the now-annual services (Evening Prayer and Communion) began in 2006 with a handful of people. Over the years, however, attendance greatly increased. The Rev. Donald Lowery of Holy Innocents, Henderson, has taken an interest, joining Canon Malone in conducting services and as organist. The annual service is often followed by a reception for participants at Olivia’s family’s homeplace, “Machpelah.”

Olivia and husband, UNC Biology professor Alan Feduccia, whom she married in 1976, have been faithful stewards of Machpelah for almost forty years. The house, along with a galaxy of surrounding buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. On the property is a colonial family cemetery they restored with graves of five Revolutionary War officers. These graves were marked by the Sons of the American Revolution in 2006 with a homily by Alan Feduccia on the Taylors of Machpelah in the Revolutionary War, followed by a fife and drum ceremony at the site. Olivia and Alan manage the farm where they grow tobacco and grains, raise Hereford cattle, and care for a menagerie of formerly homeless dogs and cats.

Olivia was 1965 valedictorian of the Townsville High School class, earned a B. A. in Education from UNC Chapel Hill in 1969, and a Master of Arts degree in Theater Arts from American University in Washington, D. C. in 1972. She taught at Kerr Lake School, Townsville, before taking a job in UNC’s Extension Division. Olivia and Alan divide their time between Machpelah and Chapel Hill, where she is an active member of the Folio Book Club and The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America. She has also served on the board of the Stagville historic site in Durham County.