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Mildred M. Creef
Mildred Merritt Creef of Carrboro died Feb. 7, 2006 after an extended illness. She was 93.
A graveside service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Feb. 9 at Westwood cemetery in Carrboro. In case of inclement weather, the service will be at Carrboro Methodist Church.
Survivors include her husband, Archie W. Creef; a niece, Kristie Farlow of Hillsborough; and a brother, Billy B. Merritt of Chapel Hill. Arrangements are by Walker’s Funeral Home.
Clifford Rinehart Jr.
Clifford Atley Rinehart Jr. of Chapel Hill died unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism Feb. 5, 2006 at UNC Hospitals. He was 55.
A native of Graniteville, S.C., he received bachelor's and master's degrees from Georgia Tech and a doctorate from Rutgers University. In his early career, his research at Yale University and UNC contributed to the understanding of the ways that cancer cells cross cell membranes and pointed to advances in diagnosis and treatment of these devastating diseases.
In recent years, he taught biology, chemistry and physics to high school students while working with his students and their parents to inspire understanding of the rewards of education and learning. In 2004, he started his own business, Peony Cottage Garden Designs. A talented home brewer, he produced beers and ales that won ribbons in competitions.
A celebration of his life will be Feb. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Totten Center of the N.C. Botanical Garden.
Survivors include his wife, Sue Tolleson-Rinehart; his parents, Lynette and Atley Rinehart; a sister, Carol Miles, all of Aiken, S.C.; and a brother, William F. Rinehart of Murrells Inlet, S.C.
Memorial donations may be made to the Botanical Garden Foundation of the N.C. Botanical Garden, UNC-CH, CB 3375, Totten Center, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599; or to the J.C. Raulston Arboretum.
Mary Speese
Mary Elizabeth "Betts" Speese of Carolina Meadows died Feb. 7, 2006. She was 90.
A native of Abington, Pa., she attended schools there and worked as a legal secretary before marrying.
A memorial service was held Feb. 11 at Carolina Meadows. A Mass of Christian Burial will be conducted Feb. 25 at St. Katherine of Siena Church in Philadelphia, Pa. Burial will be at Holy Sepulcher cemetery later that day.
Survivors include three children, Sally Speese Manaugh of Chapel Hill, Linda Speese Gregg of Southport and John J. Speese of Philadelphia, Pa.; seven grandchildren and 11 great- grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be sent to Hospice of Pittsboro, N.C., PO Box 1077, Pittsboro, N.C. 27312.
Lois F. Byrd
Lois Ferguson Byrd died Feb. 13, 2006 at Croasdaile Village. She was 85.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., she was an active member of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, where she taught elementary Sunday school and served as Sunday school secretary. A member of the United Methodist Women, she was generous with her time by sewing aprons for the annual church bazaar.
A funeral will be conducted at 11 a.m. Feb. 16 at the Few Chapel of Croasdaile Village by the Rev. Denise Waters. Burial will follow in Chapel Hill Memorial cemetery. Visitation will be today from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hall-Wynne Funeral Home.
Survivors include two children, Carlton H. Byrd III of Richmond, Va., and Tina B. Sumner of Summerfield; and four grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Quiet Care Committee, c/o of University United Methodist Church, 150 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514; or the Tape Ministry, c/o of Asbury United Methodist Church, 806 Clarendon St., Durham, N.C. 27705.
On-line memorials may be sent to: https://www.hallwynne.com.
Archie W. Creef
Archie W. Creef of Carrboro died Feb. 12, 2006. He was 85.
Born in East Lake, he moved to Carrboro as a child and grew up with the family of Fred Sparrow Sr. A retiree from the Chapel Hill Fire Department and OWASA, he was an avid horseman.
A graveside service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Feb. 15 at Westwood cemetery in Carrboro by the Rev. David Woodhouse.
Survivors include a "daughter at heart," Kristie Farlow of Hillsborough; and three sisters, Grace Whidbee and Joyce Marsh, both of Elizabeth City, and Margie Bafford of Baltimore, Md. Arrangements by Walker's Funeral Home.
Joyce L. Davis
Joyce Leigh Davis of Raleigh died Feb. 11, 2006. She was 57.
She grew up in Charlotte and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1974, where she was president of the Student Bar Association and president of the Association of Women's Studies. She was nominated to the honorary Order of the Golden Fleece at UNC. She practiced law in Raleigh, first becoming partner in the law firm of Crisp, Bolch, Smith and Clifton and then forming her own firm, Joyce L. Davis & Associates in 1995.
She was president of the Wake County Bar Association (1980-81), on the board of directors of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers (1981-87), on the board and as president of the board of East Central Legal Services (1983), and served on the Eastern District Advisory Group for Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 from 1991 to 1995.
She was a member of St. Giles Presbyterian Church of Raleigh for 29 years.
A funeral service will be at 5 Feb. 15 at St. Giles Presbyterian Church, 5101 Oak Park Road, Raleigh. Burial will be at 1 p.m. Friday at St. Paul's cemetery in Pendleton, S.C.
Memorial contributions may be made to Samaritan's Purse, Barium Springs Home for Children, Crop Walk or Habitat for Humanity.
Rebecca A. James
Rebecca Adkins James of Chapel Hill died unexpectedly Feb. 10, 2006. She was 63.
A native of Marion, she was a caretaker, entrepreneur and former chairman of the McDowell County Hospital Board.
A memorial celebration is planned.
Survivors include her daughter, Rebecca James of New York City; and a son, Lee James of Chapel Hill.
Memorial contributions may be made to the animal rescue shelter of choice or to the ASPCA.
Alice Ingram
CHAPEL HILL -- The developer and the conservationist began an unlikely friendship a decade ago.
Roger Perry wanted to turn a pastoral swath of green along N.C. 54 into homes and shops.
Alice Ingram was a community leader bent on protecting the woods and hillside meadows.
"I don't think Alice trusted me to start with," Perry said Monday.
But that changed, so much so that the Meadowmont developer had to stop and choke back tears as he remembered Ingram, who died Saturday of complications after heart surgery. She was 83.
"It was a special friendship, and there are a lot of us who will miss her a lot," Perry said. "The town is better because of Alice."
The two met for lunch regularly and talked politics, family and, of course, the right way and wrong way to develop.
It was Ingram's passion, and her friends and colleagues credited her with preserving and enhancing Chapel Hill's environmental integrity.
She fought for greenways and parks, even getting a small one named for her.
She was so instrumental in creating the Faculty Staff Recreation Association, a recreation center for UNC-Chapel Hill employees, that they named the street outside Alice Ingram Circle.
She served on the town planning board for eight years in the 1980s, and on the Community Design Commission from 1998 to 2004. From 1992 to 1995, she led the Mayor's Downtown Planning Committee, which developed concept plans that were included in the Downtown Small Area Plan.
"She had a passion for planning and land use and human-scale development," Perry said. "She was a brilliant woman."
Ingram wasn't shy, as everyone interviewed Monday will attest.
"I used to say, 'When I grow up, I want to be just like Alice so I could tell people exactly what they needed to hear,' " said Edith Wiggins, a former Town Council member who got friendship as well as political support from Ingram. "You'd let her say things to you you probably would not let other people say to you. But it was the truth."
Ingram wasn't all talk.
Jim Ward, a council member and curator of the N.C. Botanical Garden, got a call one day from Ingram.
She had noticed that a clump of cherry trees had been felled, and she wanted to know why and what could be done. Ward identified beavers as the culprit, and the town went to work beaver-proofing the grove.
"When she saw something that needed to get done, she wasn't afraid of putting her own time and energy into it," Ward said. "She wasn't somebody who just complained, but somebody who was willing to find a solution."
During the 1960s and '70s she taught American and Russian history at N.C. Central University, N.C. State University and at the University of Maryland program in Bangkok.
She was president of the University Women's Club and the League of Women Voters.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill.
She is survived by her husband, James C. Ingram; three daughters, Deborah, Susan, and Melissa; a brother, Eric Graham; and four grandsons.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be sent in her name to a favorite charity.
C.W. Ferguson
Christopher Wilson Ferguson died Feb. 17, 2006 in High Point. He was 61.
Born Wesley Wilson Ferguson in Danville, Va., he changed his name upon converting to Catholicism and with the publication of his book, "The Molting Season." He received a bachelor's degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master's from UNC-Greensboro. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam from January to December 1966. He taught English at the U.S. Marine Corps base high school in Quantico, Va. in 1971 and at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1974 to 1975, and was a professor of English at the University of Texas at Houston from 1975 to 1978. Baptized as a Catholic as a teenager, he held avid interests in nature and religions and philosophies of the East, especially Taoism, throughout his adulthood. He continued to write stories and poems until recent years.
Upon the publication of "The Molting Season," a novel described as semi-autobiographical, a book review in The New York Times declared him a new voice from the South. By 1978 severe mental illness permanently derailed his writing career and he was institutionalized for much of the remainder of his life.
A graveside service was held Feb. 18 in Blanch.
Survivors include a daughter, Melissa Erin Ferguson of Silver Spring, Md.; sister, Linda Dale Dunn of Denton; brothers, James Reynolds of Robbins and Jerry Reynolds of Danville, Va.; and one grandson.
Memorial donations may be made to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill at the National Headquarters, 2107 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22201-3042, or to a local NAMI chapter.
Marguerite T. Perry
Marguerite "Geet" Thompson Perry of Chapel Hill died Feb. 17, 2006. She was 80.
Born in Durham County, she was married to Ben Perry for 57 years. A graduate of St. Mary's Women's College, she was the administrative assistant at the John Motley Morehead Foundation at UNC-Chapel Hill for 28 years and served as volunteer administrative assistant for the "Justice Era Football Team" reunions. She was an enthusiastic "Nifty-Niners" and an avid bridge and dominoes player. She was a long-time member of Aldersgate United Methodist Church of Chapel Hill.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Feb. 22 at Aldersgate United Methodist Church.
Survivors include her husband, of the home; sons, Sam Perry of Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Michael Perry of Chatham County; two grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Minna K. Abernethy
Minna Karp Abernethy died Feb. 16, 2006. She was 94.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she followed her husband, Milton, to Chapel Hill, where they founded the Intimate Bookshop. She also worked as a social worker for the WPA, co-edited a literary magazine, championed peace and civil rights, and scoffed at McCarthyism. In 1954 she moved to New York where she remained until 2000, when she returned to Chapel Hill to live with her family.
Survivors include a sister, Mary; two daughters, Ellen and Amy; and two grandchildren.
Rather than flowers or charitable donations, the family requests a higher turnout at the next election.
Samuel Ernst
Samuel T. Ernst of Chapel Hill died Feb. 17, 2006 at his home.
He was 58.
A funeral was held Feb. 19 at New Hope Presbyterian Church.
Survivors include a sister, Donna Birtchett of Chapel Hill.
