Mabel Roberson McIntyre

Mabel Roberson McIntyre July 31, 1921 – June 22, 2016 Mabel Roberson McIntyre, 94, of Stanhope, a beloved teacher of thousands and a pillar of her family and community, died at her home Tuesday, June 22, 2016. Mabel Buell Roberson was born in Stanhope to Nannie B. Morgan Roberson and Walter Raleigh Roberson. Mabel\'s father died just two years later, leaving her mother with three young children and very limited means of support. But Nannie Roberson was a strong and resourceful woman who became known in the Stanhope community for her practical nursing skills. She also set up as proprietress of a small general store, where she kept a shotgun by the door that she occasionally called on to reinforce the understanding that she was not a woman to be trifled with! Mabel was her mother\'s daughter. She attended Stanhope Elementary and Spring Hope High School, then in the depths of the Great Depression she learned to drive a Ford Model A so she could attend Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson, where she earned a bachelor\'s degree in Elementary Education. She married William Hoyt McIntyre in June of 1942, and the couple built a house in Stanhope across the street from where Mabel was born. Mabel and \"Mac\" would eventually have two children, son William Hoyt Jr. and daughter Nancy Marie, but Mac lost a long battle with lung cancer and died in 1964. Mabel would live the rest of her life in the house they built together. Mabel taught at Stanhope Elementary, where she became a principal. When Stanhope School was consolidated into Spring Hope Elementary, she taught there and at other schools in Nash County. She helped pioneer the state\'s Title 1 program for students who needed special help with reading. She was in the vanguard of racial integration in the Nash County School System, volunteering to become one of the first white teachers in a historically black school. She retired in 1981 after 37 years in the profession. Throughout her career, Mabel actively participated and held office in the North Carolina Education Association and the North Carolina Teachers Association (which merged to form the NCAE). She served as chapter president of teaching sorority Delta Kappa Gamma International, and she was proud to have an Honored Educator scholarship in her name at NCCAT, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching. She was president of the district 12 North Carolina Retired School Personnel from 1991 to 1995, served as district chairman of Informative and Protective Services, and represented NCRSP with the North Carolina Coalition on Aging. In these and other civic commitments, her fearless humanitarianism went hand-in-hand with a knack for telling the kind of borderline risqué jokes that enliven teachers\' lounges across the country and help keep teachers sane. Mabel never chaired a meeting that didn\'t start with a joke. At home in Stanhope, Mabel was active in the Stanhope Methodist Church and Stanhope Baptist Church and was a stalwart fundraiser for the volunteer fire department, never failing to contribute cakes to a bake sale— and then doing the accounting afterward. A committed liberal Democrat, Mabel believed there was no virtue in progress if it leaves out any segment of society. She was president of the Nash County Democratic Women and served on the North Carolina Democratic Executive Board. She was a tireless worker at the polls on Election Day and regularly volunteered to drive people who needed rides to their polling places. She considered the current state of politics in America to be ample evidence that our public education system needs help. In 2001, Governor Mike Easley conferred on Mabel the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which is awarded to citizens for exemplary service to the State of North Carolina and to their communities above and beyond the call of duty. She was a mother, friend, neighbor, counselor, and favorite teacher who, well into her nineties, was recognized and greeted on the street by countless former students whose lives she changed. Mabel is survived by her son, Will, and his wife, Deni, of Hendersonville, and by her daughter, Nancy, of the home. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Mabel McIntyre Scholarship at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, 276 NCCAT Drive, Cullowhee, North Carolina, 28723 or http://www.nccat.org/., and vote for Roy Cooper for Governor in November. Mabel’s memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Joyner\'s Funeral Home, 4100 US 264 HWY NW in Wilson, North Carolina. The family will receive friends 2 – 2:45 p.m. Friday prior to the service at Joyner’s. The burial will be private. Condolences may be directed to www.joyners.net.