PAULINE JEWEL FAULKNER RALPH

November 11, 1917 – December 27, 2008

by Barbara Sue Oglesby Nicholl, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Erwin, 2016

Pauline Jewel Faulkner Ralph

If there was ever anyone who appreciated God as the creator of the universe, and who took it on as her responsibility to keep our earth green, it was Pauline Ralph. She was appointed by the mayor of Erwin, NC to develop a tree board so that Erwin could become a Tree City USA. Over many years, she was responsible for many trees being planted in Erwin in memory of persons who had been influential in the community. To honor her many years of dedication, in the year 1998, citizens of Erwin planted 12 trees in her honor in the Erwin park.

Pauline not only cared about the earth, she cared about her church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Erwin. Pauline knew that there was more to being a member of a church than just coming to church. She not only came to church, every Sunday and every Wednesday, or whenever the church doors were open, but did much more. Pauline could tell you the history of the church over a period of 70 years. She didn’t just keep all these things in her heart, she shared them. To Pauline, talking about her church and talking about God was the easiest and most natural thing in the world.

Pauline was reared a Baptist. In 1936, she married Frank Kitchener Ralph, a member of St. Stephen’s since his birth, and she became a member of the Episcopal Church. The couple had four children, Diane, Sandra, Frank and Daniel, each of whom spent all or some of their adult life at St. Stephen’s. Pauline’s service orientation was evident early. Looking back at vestry minutes from 1944 and 1945, Pauline, as President of the Women’s Auxiliary, spearheaded a “used clothes drive for people in liberated countries of Europe” and programs included “Reports of missionaries recently returned from enemy or occupied countries.”

In the Episcopal Church, adults often don’t see the need for adult Sunday School. Pauline did. She was a faithful Sunday School member. She could tell how God had helped her and how God spoke to her heart. Pauline was forward looking and always on the forefront of new ideas. She was the first woman lay reader and chalice bearer at St. Stephen’s. She took communion to the sick and made sure that each person who could not get to church had communion taken to them.

Pauline was a Licensed Practical Nurse, bookkeeper for her husband’s business, real estate broker, Mary Kay salesperson, and newspaper reporter. She served as president of the Erwin Chamber of Commerce and was voted Erwin’s Woman of the Year in 1988.

Pauline served on the Vestry, was president of the ECW again in 1989, was an EYC leader, and was a faithful member of the choir for over 60 years. Today several of her great-grandchildren, Jacob, Thomas, Paul, Kannan and Olivia serve as acolytes at St. Stephen’s. In 2008, after many years of faithful service and at the age of 91, Pauline went to be with her Lord.

MARY LOUISE RIDDICK GREGORY

December 21, 1919 – February 5, 2000

by Mary Louise Gregory Wilson, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, NC, 2016

Mary Louise Riddick Gregory

Mary Louise Riddick was born December 21, 1919, to Louise Josey and Neusom Allsbrook Riddick in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. She was baptized (1920), confirmed (1931), and married (1946) at Trinity Church in Scotland Neck. In 1938 she graduated from St. Mary’s College in Raleigh where she was president of the student body, and in 1940 from Woman’s College (now University of North Carolina at Greensboro).

After working in Pinehurst and Virginia Beach during World War II, she met and married Fletcher Harrison Gregory, Jr., a decorated Army Air Corps pilot, in 1946. He took her to Weldon, North Carolina, where he worked in the family banking business. Mary Louise and Fletcher became pillars of Grace Church in Weldon. There they raised their four children: Mary Louise, Boyd Thorne, Nancy Neusom, and Fletcher Harrison III.

Mary Louise’s duties as a churchwoman included everything from chairing the Altar Guild and arranging for yard maintenance to having the Bishop for lunch every year during the annual visitation. She did not consent to stand for the Vestry until her husband died.

Mary Louise Riddick Gregory was known far and wide for her love of people and animals and for her efforts to improve the lives of both. Her life was a testament to the power of love and an affirmation that being a wife and mother is God’s highest calling. She represented Jesus and the Episcopal Church admirably throughout Halifax County and eastern North Carolina.

She died on February 5, 2000. Her funeral at Grace Church was joyous, and there was standing room only. She and her beloved husband Fletcher are buried in Old Trinity Cemetery in Scotland Neck.

ISABELLE GRAHAM WEBB

March 28, 1926 – June 14, 2014

by Ellen Chesley Weig, for Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Hillsborough, 2016

Isabelle Graham Webb

When Isabelle was a young girl, St. Matthew’s held Sunday School “in the church building and the different classes just went to different corners of the church.” Memories of her Sunday School teachers stayed with her, as did wonderful memories of her expansive North Carolina family.

The Webb family traces its Hillsborough roots well back into the 1800s. Isabelle often shared that she was related to many families with long North Carolina histories, a good number of whom are buried in St. Matthew’s beautiful old churchyard: Grahams, Huskes, Norwoods, Hills, Blounts, Cheshires, and Dranes. Her remarkable memory kept track of relatives and relations and wonderful family stories from old North Carolina plantations to the growth and development of St. Matthew’s and the town of Hillsborough. Isabelle said this was why there were so many people named Webb in the Churchyard – it wasn’t just last names; it could have been a maiden name or middle name. Any time questions arose about which family member was involved in some aspect of church history or a church memorial, Isabelle would tell another bit of information.

Isabelle shared her own story in an oral history – a story that exemplified her life as an Episcopal Churchwoman and in her professional career. As a young woman, Isabelle chose nursing when there were few options for women. She made a point of saying that when she was growing up, it was not a general expectation that women would get higher education. It was “more or less a personal expectation” and that only for some was there “encouragement” to go to college.

When Isabelle worked at Watts Hospital in Durham she was Head Nurse for the Full Term Nursery, taught practical nursing, and eventually became the Educational Director for the program. She had also worked for Duke Hospital as the Director of Recruitment for the Nursing Department. She said “one of the most interesting experiences I had there was a program that was … an anti-poverty program … there were about 20 students in the class … they were all African-American, except three.” This program was part of Operation Breakthrough, an anti-poverty movement in Durham in the 1960s, and was influential in the expansion of the Civil Rights movement. Isabelle believed that supporting education this way was critically important, because “one quarter of the adults above 25 years old … received an education inferior to sixth grade, making most of them illiterate.”

Isabelle was part of the fiber of St. Matthew’s in so many ways: Altar Guild, the Parish Guild and Episcopal Churchwomen, and Vestry and on Sunday mornings, sitting in the congregation. She recalled one time on Altar Guild when wildflowers were collected from along country roadsides. She said the ladies sat on the steps outside the sacristy to arrange them for Sunday morning, not unlike old times. Her presence at St. Matthew’s always reflected her love for her family and her family’s love for St. Matthew’s.

NANCY PYLE SIMONS

by Carolyn Townsend, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Pittsboro, 2016

Nancy Pyle Simons

Nancy Pyle Simons has served the Episcopal Church for more than sixty years with the Altar Guild, as a choir member and as a volunteer in the church office. At. St. Bartholomew’s she was editor of the Grapevine newsletter and worked on the church grounds with her sister, Jane Pyle, who maintained the cemetery. She worked with the parishioners and other churches in organizing and supporting Chatham Outreach Alliance (CORA), the food pantry in Pittsboro.

Nancy supported her husband during his active ministry as rector for parishes in Ohio, North Carolina and one in England, in addition to his thirty-two years of service as a Chaplain in the Army National Guard. 

Nancy’s Dad was in the professional Army, stationed in many places, from Iowa State College, to the Pentagon, to Linz, Austria.  While in Austria Nancy wanted to learn how to read music and was told to go to choir practice at one of the area churches. She chose the Methodist Church because if you memorized a bible verse you would receive a bible. She rode her bicycle to chapel service planning to arrive early to assist the Chaplain to pour the wine and ring the church bell for the service.  Nancy’s parents were not members of a Church, but the Chaplain baptized Nancy at age 18, along with her sister Peggy. 

Nancy and John Simons were married in Baton Rouge where his family was stationed. They lived in Missouri while John went to Drury University (then College) in Springfield going on to Bexley Hall seminary in Gambier, Ohio. 

Nancy had learned a little about altar guild work when John came home during seminary with a bag of linens. Neither of them knew what they were, but “We read the green book and matched pictures and sizes on how to fold the linens and what each one was.”  Fair linens were used and had to be washed by hand and ironed wet.  Nancy laments scorching more than a few linens.

While living in Pershore, England, following John’s retirement, Nancy learned how to get to know people: talk to just one person. “I learned, she learned and I could introduce her to others.” Nancy knows the importance of getting to know each person in the church

John and Nancy moved to Pittsboro, North Carolina, after their year in England. Too young to retire, John served as interim rector at St. Timothy’s in Raleigh, as rector at St. John’s in Henderson, and finally as interim rector at St. Bartholomew’s in Pittsboro.  

At St. Bartholomew’s Nancy served ten years with the Altar Guild. During her service in many parishes she had learned the rules/protocols of setting up the altar with reverence for the sacraments and the office of communion.

Nancy’s parting advice: “Be patient, kind and tolerant. People have a lot of different opinions— all opinions have value. Love one another.”

CYNTHIA YEAGER BOULDIN

b. 1947

by the Landscape Committee of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, NC, 2016

Cynthia Yeager Bouldin

Cynthia, along with her husband, Edwin E. Bouldin, Jr., has been a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem since 1974. Her longtime involvement in church activities includes serving as a Cub Scout and Webelos leader, a member of the kitchen guild (to whom she has presented cooking classes and chaired and prepared the annual Episcopal Church Women Christmas dinners), a tutor with the Augustine Project and Kids Café, a volunteer with the St. Paul’s Summer Enrichment Program (for whom she has provided hands-on cooking classes for the youth), and a Sunday worship lector and chalice bearer.

Her greatest contribution, however, has been her participation in the creation of The Paradise Herb Garden. Serving on its 1996 steering committee, she helped plan, select plants for, and install this church garden, under the leadership of Nancy Sherk and Janet Doellgast, and assisted by Little and Little landscape architects.

The design of the garden was inspired by the National Cathedral gardens in Washington, D.C., the Cloisters monastic garden in New York, and by the writings of Ralph Adams Cram, the church’s architect. In keeping with the church’s neo-Gothic architecture, it resembles a medieval herb garden and uses plants—as well as other features—that were found in medieval gardens. Many of these same plants were also referred to in the Bible. Cynthia has continued to develop and maintain the garden since its dedication on June 8, 1997, drawing on members of the former St. Francis Fellowship for assistance.

She has also introduced the garden to the community through a multitude of garden club programs. David Bare, former garden editor of the Winston-Salem Journal, featured the garden in his weekly column on July 13, 2002.

A Master Gardener, Cynthia has served as an active member of the Landscape Committee under the leadership of Janice Lewis. Together, they assist in the maintenance and development of additional gardens on the church grounds. Such gardens include the adjoining St. Francis Courtyard, which Cynthia has maintained for the last ten years.