FRANCES BARR CARGIILL

b. October 9, 1920

by Laurel Cargill Radley, Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul (Washington National Cathedral), 2013

Frances Barr Cargill

Frances Barr Cargill celebrated her ninetieth birthday at the Macon County Historical Society Museum. Outside, the front window displayed artifacts and photographs related to Frances’ life, many objects older than she. But inside, the celebration focused on the future rather than the past. Members of the Nikwasi Dulcimer Players, which Fran founded, entertained the guests. And fellow Nonah Weavers, which she also founded, talked about an upcoming exhibit in Asheville.

Frances lives in a log cabin built by her great-grandfather, Albert Siler, and though she is now an institution in the life and culture of Macon County, she has lived there for less than 20 years. She sees herself as a mountain girl, but she was born in the Piedmont and lived most of her life in New England. Her mother, Anna Morgan Barr, was a stalwart of St. Martin’s in Charlotte. A favorite family image of Anna comes from a Charlotte Observer clipping highlighting her years of candy making for the church fair.

Frances’ childhood was spent each summer with Anna’s sister, Lucy C. Morgan, at Penland School of Crafts, which Lucy founded and directed until her retirement. There, Frances learned to weave and played with fellow children from the neighboring (Episcopal) Appalachian School. Frances graduated from Berea College and attended George Washington University during World War II. She attended the Church of the Epiphany there and remembers playing the carillon, as well as a visit from Franklin Roosevelt.

When Frances returned to North Carolina, Anna’s brother, the Rev. A. Rufus Morgan, asked Frances to help him develop a project on church property in Cartoogechaye, Macon County. Based on his socio-political doctoral work at Columbia University, he was interested in replicating what he had done with Lucy in Penland. Among other services to the community, Nonah Weavers was born.

St. John’s, Cartoogechaye

Frances worked with her uncle in a number of capacities for the Church, often playing the organ and helping with his efforts to establish mission churches such as St. Francis in Cherokee. One summer she met a Bexley Hall seminarian from Vermont serving in the Rural Church Workers Conference at Valle Crucis. She married him and spent the greater part of her middle adulthood as the wife of a priest, serving parishes throughout the northeast. Frances also lived in Jackson County for four years in the late 1960s. Though a communicant and choir member of St. John’s, Sylva, she served other parishes as an interim organist as well.

Frances is now a member of St. John’s Cartoogechaye, the church her great-grandmother, Joanna Chipman Siler, founded and her Uncle Rufus rebuilt. She continues to serve in the choir, as a lay reader, and is active in other parish events, as well as those of the All Saints’ Episcopal Community in Macon County. As Matthew Baker wrote in an article for the Franklin Press, “Frances Barr Cargill is a treasure”— as an Episcopalian and as a witness to the work of the Church for all generations.

FRANCES LOUISE SAMPSON MASK

November 12, 1912 – November 12, 2004

by Alyce Mask Calmore, All Saints’ Church, Hamlet, 2013

Frances Louise Sampson Mask

Our mother was a native of La Porte, Indiana. She was baptized the twenty-second day of March, 1913 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in La Porte where her parents and grandparents were communicants.

After completing high school in La Porte, she pursued all of her higher education in the South, going first to Fisk University in Nashville, TN, and then to Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, where she received her undergraduate degree in history. She pursued further study at Atlanta University, North Carolina A & T State University, Saint Augustine’s College, East Carolina University and Appalachian State University.

At Atlanta University mother met and fell in love with our Dad, James W. Mask, Jr., from Hamlet, NC. After asking our grandfather for his permission, they were married August 25, 1938, in La Porte, and subsequently moved to Hamlet where together they successfully raised five wonderful children.

Mother, who was an accomplished pianist, gave private piano lessons to many talented young people in our home before joining the teaching community in Richmond County. At the end of the 1974-75 school term she retired from the public schools of Richmond County where she was Chairperson of the Social Studies Department in the high school for her last ten years there. She was active in the Association of Classroom Teachers, an affiliate of the North Carolina Association of Educators, the professional educators’ association. Upon retiring she served as District Eight Secretary of the Retired School Personnel and Devotional Chairperson of the local unit, and also served for a time as the acting president of the local unit.

At All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Hamlet, mother served at various times in many capacities. At one time she was the Chairperson of Christian Social Relations for the All Saints’ branch of the Episcopal Church Women (ECW). She served as a member of the parish Vestry, Vice President of the Marjorie Milham Chapter of ECW, Director of the Church School, as well as serving as a teacher for a class. Mother was also in charge of the Moncure Fund and was an active member of the Altar Guild.

Whoever wanted an honest answer knew Miss Frances would give it. She was well known for her frankness and reality checks. Well into her eighties mother was active not only in the church, but also in civic organizations in her community, where she was loved, respected and admired for the caring and compassion she exemplified in all her endeavors.

At home she was always doing something, seldom watched TV, but read, listened to music or played the piano. She had such grace, strength, calmness, and a peacefulness about her that was so soothing. She was indeed a remarkable woman, wife, mother, friend and role model. She was and always will be our idol.

CATHARINE CORNELIA PERRY WESTON

July 12, 1884 - October 30, 1965

by C. Rudolph Knight, Saint Augustine’s College Chapel, Raleigh, 2012 

Catharine Cornelia Perry Weston

On November 3, 1965, St. Luke’s Colored Protestant Episcopal Church in Tarboro held the Requiem Mass and Burial Office for Catharine Cornelia Perry Weston, daughter of an Episcopal priest, wife of an Episcopal priest, mother of an Episcopal priest, and great aunt of an Episcopal priest. Catharine’s long and faithful journey began in 1884, two years after her parents, the Rev. Dr. John William Perry and Mary Eliza Pettipher Perry, came to serve at St. Luke’s and to start the Parochial Day School, which served the Tarboro community for seventy years (1882 – 1954).

The Rev. John Perry, who spent his entire ministry at St. Luke’s, was one of the first graduates from the Theology Department at Saint Augustine’s School in Raleigh. Mrs. Perry was another early graduate, and her mother, Mrs. Pettipher, was a matron in the college’s early years. Catharine was privately tutored and trained at St. Luke’s Day School, then matriculated at Saint Augustine’s for high school, normal school, and college. She was thoroughly trained in the liberal arts and domestic sciences offered at the college and excelled in mathematics and music.

Catharine took seriously her role as daughter, wife, and mother of Episcopal clergymen. She was active in many Church programs, serving as organist and choir director, superintendent of the Sunday School, and, at times, head of the Women’s Auxiliary. In 1925 she was one of the representatives from the diocesan Woman’s Auxiliary to the national Triennial Meeting in New Orleans.

Catharine taught 63 years, most in Tarboro and vicinity, with nine being in Savannah, Georgia. Her career began in the parochial day school founded by her father and continued in the parish day school of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, which was then headed by her husband, the Rev. Milton Moran Weston, Sr. The couple was married June 16, 1908, in Tarboro at St. Luke’s. When her husband succeeded her father as vicar of St. Luke’s she returned to the Perry School (as the day school was known locally), and later taught public school. After her retirement as a teacher of mathematics and Latin at Tarboro’s W. A. Pattillo High School, she taught in Rocky Mount, Pinetops, and Halifax County. After her final retirement from the public schools, she continued her teaching career in her home until March of 1965 when she suffered a stroke. The school in her home was an original “Head Start” program for preschool children, and she also coached individual high school students. In addition to her teaching career in the classroom, Mrs. Weston taught piano in her home for 60 years – right up to her final illness.

Her vision for the children she taught and for the community where she lived was often far ahead of accepted expectations. She lived long enough to see some of her hopes fulfilled in the great social changes of the last century. Most of all she specialized in stimulating young people to greater achievement and a high sense of their personal dignity and duty.

ERICA LYNNE WYATT GRAVES

b. September 2, 1978

by Allison Rankin, Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Wilmington, NC, 2013

Erica Lynne Wyatt Graves

Erica Lynne Wyatt Graves, Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Wilmington, North Carolina, is the silent worker bee. Her faithful presence and quiet leadership are made manifest in many ways. This includes producing the weekly church bulletin since our Myrtle Grove Middle School days (circa 2008), her active involvement in the children’s nursery, Sunday school programs and pageants, her contributions of time and talent to Vacation Bible School, and her hosting, with husband Jamey, of the Dinner for Disciples, a weekly Bible study and support group for area college students.

Growing up in the Methodist church, Erica was a member of Asbury United Methodist Church in Cove City, North Carolina (Craven County) where she was baptized, confirmed and later married to James Spottswood Graves II (Jamey). She met Jamey in 1999 while a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and started going to church with him at St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington. She was later confirmed in the Episcopal Church at Holy Cross in May 2009, the same day her son, James Spottswood Graves III (Tripp) was baptized.

Being the mother of an active toddler and working full-time at a Certified Public Accounting firm, Erica still found time to be involved with Happening, the semi-annual Episcopal youth retreat at Trinity Center, Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina, with her first being Happening #44 in Fall 2004 where she attended as a “Geritol,” aka adult participant. She went back to several subsequent Happenings and helped where needed. She also participated in the youth mission work week at Glory Ridge in Madison County, North Carolina, with St. James in June 2006, in Camino, a national gathering for Episcopal young adults held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in September 2007, and in PYE (Provincial Youth Event) for Province IV in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in July 2007 where she was in charge of the kitchen. This wasn’t just any kitchen – it was a mobile kitchen and responsible for feeding approximately 225 people for a 10-day mission experience!

And if that weren’t enough, Erica was involved with the Holy Cross music group in its early days and was often found at Holy Cross during rehearsal of children’s plays and band performances. It is with a heavy heart that we say good bye and wish her well as she and her family begin a new life in Charlotte, North Carolina, at Christ Episcopal Church. Erica’s last day at Holy Cross will be Sunday, May 26, 2013. It has been a joy knowing Erica and having her in our midst.

MEGAN ELIZABETH DRUESEDOW WHITTED

b. January 14, 1977

by Ellen C Weig, Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Hillsborough, 2012

Megan Whitted

Standing on a podium, arms raised, baton poised, Megan paused to look at each person in the choir and the instrumentalists. St. Matthew’s Easter season premiere performance of Handel’s Messiah was about to begin. The choir, in black formal attire, was seated in the front of the church. The audience could see only Megan’s black sequined back, not her face, but everyone knew the joy and anticipation that was there. She had worked with the choir for months to prepare for this: “She knew we could do this”… “We wanted to do this for Megan”… “She always made us feel good about it.”

Megan studied Music at Davidson College and came to St. Matthew’s in 1999. She was married shortly afterwards. Her mother says that as a bride, Megan joined the choir, who had wanted to sing at her wedding, in singing the Alleluia written by her father for her!

Serving as accompanist, Megan quietly performed each task as needed to assist the choir director’s rehearsal style. Then in 2009 Megan assumed the additional role of choir director. The transformation that occurred was more than simply an expansion of duties: it allowed Megan to become a minister of music, an undertaking which brought about a spiritual awakening for the church through her music. For the choir, Megan’s leadership meant an extraordinary period of growth, providing music during worship from classical to gospel. She embraced the tasks of meeting with the clergy, choosing music, rehearsing the choir, and implementing the music for worship. But Megan has reached beyond the expected.

St. Matthew’s has a legacy of highly talented organists – Miss Lizzie Jones began earlier than 1866 and played here for more than 35 years. In 1883 the Ladies Sewing Society bought the Hook and Hastings organ for her. Played by every organist since then, it is affectionately called “Miss Lizzie.”

Based loosely on the Ladies Sewing Society, whose president was Miss Lizzie Jones, and whose members sang in her choir, the Women’s Singing Circle was the idea of Megan and Mary Rocap, a singer/ songwriter and St. Matthew’s office administrator. The Singing Circle is a gathering of women who pray Compline together monthly and sing the hymns and gospel music of women past. With Megan and Mary’s leadership the group has presented Faith and the Arts programs at St. Matthew’s in concert with North Carolina story-tellers Lee Smith and Shelia Kay Adams, and at annual homecomings of the historic St. Mary’s Chapel in Orange County.

Megan’s extraordinary vision of what the congregation is capable of enhances productions of the parish’s Faith and the Arts programs. “She has a way of finding something for everyone to do!”

Not least of all is Megan’s joy of teaching sacred music to children. Youth Sunday presentations are remarkable, and when the children’s choir sings, the rest of us smile.