ELIZABETH “BETTY” CHEEK CLARKE

b. November 27, 1934

by David Curtis Skaggs, Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Elizabeth “Betty” Cheek Clarke

Typical of many of Christ Church members, Betty Cheek Clarke is part of the influx of retirees who have migrated to New Bern in the past third of a century. On the other hand, she has Cheek family ancestors who settled in Edenton, North Carolina, before the American Revolution, so one can say she really returned to her roots. Born in Middletown, Ohio, her family moved to Louisville her senior year in high school. She attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, before marrying Ernest Hoge Clarke (1930-2011) in 1955. After Ernie finished law school at Washington and Lee University they moved to Louisville where he practiced law for sixteen years. In 1974 they moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Ernie taught at Capital University Law School until 1990. Then they moved to New Bern where they built a home in the historic district.

A cradle Episcopalian, Betty has been active in parish and diocesan affairs at several churches—St. Francis in the Fields, Harrods Creek, Kentucky (where they were married), Trinity Church in Columbus, and now Christ Church, New Bern. In all these parishes Betty has been active in community outreach and hospitality with particular concentration on the United Thank Offering where she served on the Diocese of Southern Ohio’s UTO committee and later on the National UTO committee, 1983-88. She has also been active in Episcopal Church Women and served on the Diocese of Kentucky’s board as the ECW’s representative. This brought her into work with companion dioceses in Haiti. Over the years this led to other companion diocese visits in Nigeria and Puerto Rico. These, she says, “were life-changing events.”

With an ebullient personality and an uncanny ability to remember names and faces, Betty has been on the parish newcomers committee since her arrival in New Bern and has played an important role in bringing new arrivals into the church. She contacts newcomers, visits with them, helps them meet others in the church, and seeks to find a niche where they can serve the parish.

From the beginning of her adult life Betty has been active in a variety of community affairs. Among these are working with the Junior League in Louisville and supporting the arts both as a volunteer and fund raiser at art museums, children’s theaters, and Tryon Palace. She has also volunteered at New Bern’s Religious Community Services for twenty-five years.

She and Ernie had two children and now there are ten grandchildren plus two great-grandchildren scattered across the globe. The family maintains unity by gathering as many as possible each summer at Ernie’s family compound on Michigan’s Lake Leelanau.

Looking back on her life, Betty says she learned that if one is given an opportunity to serve, just say “Yes. These opportunities will enrich your life.”

ALICE GRAHAM UNDERHILL

b. March 8, 1946

by Charles K. (Ken) McCotter, Jr., Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Alice Graham Underhill

Alice Graham Underhill has been a member of Christ Episcopal Church since August 1978, when she and her husband, Dr. T. Reed Underhill, moved to New Bern with their three children. Reed was joining the New Bern Urology Clinic, founded by Dr. Dale T. Milns, who was a pillar of the New Bern and Christ Church Community. Dale and his wife Jane made the Underhill family feel most welcome both in New Bern and Christ Church, and Alice became involved in the church as a relatively new Episcopalian.

Alice was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She grew up in the First Baptist Church downtown, where she received a strong faith foundation. Alice was confirmed and received into the Episcopal Church before the birth of their first child in 1971. Her husband is a “cradle” Episcopalian, and Alice attended Episcopal churches in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with Reed during college and medical school, and she appreciated and loved the liturgy and services of the Church. Their three children, Reed, Jr., Laura and Graham were baptized by Father Charles Vache at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, Virginia, during their time in the U. S. Navy.

Alice became active in St. Margaret’s Chapter and the Episcopal Church Women. During the 1980s, she was involved in the creation and development of the award-winning cookbook, Pass the Plate, the Collection from Christ Church, with the help of many others in the church and the community. Over 70,000 copies have been sold to benefit the ECW and Christ Church outreach.

Alice served on the Vestry as Senior Warden during the transition period after the retirement of the Rev. Ed Sharp and the selection of the Rev. Bob Dannals and the Rev. Carolyn West at Christ Church. Alice also served as a delegate to the Diocesan Convention and as a member of the Commission on Ministry.

During the Dannals tenure, Alice, with the Rev. Carolyn West, Terry Brubaker, and Joy Dosher, attended Stephen Ministry training in Baltimore, Maryland, and instituted that program at Christ Church. About that same time, Alice helped the ECW start an annual cookie walk at Christmas. The Christ Church Cookie Walk remains an important fundraising tool for the ECW.

Alice has always had an interest in politics. She served on the New Bern/Craven County Board of Education from 1980-1984. She served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2001-2002 and 2005-2010, representing Craven and Pamlico Counties. She served on the North Carolina Education Lottery Commission from 2013 to 2017. She also served on the Tryon Palace Commission for fifteen years during the planning and building of the North Carolina History Center, and she is a board member of the Craven Literacy Council.

Alice serves on the Altar Guild. She finds all aspects of Episcopal Church life to be inspiring, educational and enlightening, but most of all spiritually uplifting. Service in Christ Church has brought Alice great joy and many blessings.

ANNE EURETTA DOAR STOWE

December 5, 1928 – August 26, 2012

by Mary Faircloth Stowe, Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, NC, 2016

Anne Euretta Doar Stowe

Anne Euretta Doar Stowe was born in Florence, South Carolina. She grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she was a member of The Church of the Good Shepherd. She was active in youth groups and attended summer camps at Kanuga. It was as Kanuga one summer that she met her future husband, Harry Stowe, a fellow camper from Christ Church, Charlotte.

Anne graduated from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and then taught high school English before marrying Harry in 1951. Harry was by then an officer in the U. S. Air Force and they lived all over the world. The first thing Anne did when they moved to a new location was to find the Episcopal church in the community for her family of six children to attend.

After Harry’s retirement from the Air Force the family moved to Greensboro and joined St. Andrew’s within the first week. Anne was a member there for 40 years until her death in Greensboro in 2012. She was at church so much the family thought she was on every committee there. She was very involved in ECW and her chapter group, served different terms on the vestry, participated in endless Bazaar workshops, attended to never-ending Altar Guild duties and headed the Newcomers committee. She never met a stranger and she brought many members to St. Andrew’s.

Being a part of the church gave Anne purpose and strength and was of the utmost importance to her. When she was growing up, career options were limited for women. When asked what she would have liked to do for a career had there been more options available, she said she would have liked to have been a priest. That made total sense. She loved the Episcopal Church. She loved the liturgy, the history and the way that each church was different, yet the same.

Anne’s family commissioned a beautiful stained-glass window for the Chapel at St. Andrew’s as a memorial named in her honor. It is “One with God”; and so was Anne.

HARRIET LOUISE GILBERT MILDE

b. December 18, 1927

by Charles K. (Ken) McCotter, Jr., Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Harriet Louise Gilbert Milde

Harriet Louise Gilbert Milde was born in Oneonta, New York. She graduated from Oneonta High School and attended the Wilson Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Johnson City, New York. She received her BS and MS in Nursing Education at New York University.

Harriet met her husband Bill in May 1953 on a blind date arranged by her father. Harriet needed a ride into New York to go to a Chinese dinner. Her father insisted that she allow Bill Milde to escort her. After dinner they visited a Chinese temple where Harriet rang the gong three times: one for good health; two for wealth; and three for a happy marriage. Bill rang the gong three times and they were married in October 1953. Harriett and Bill were happily married for 53 years until Bill passed away in 2008. They had one son and two grandchildren.

Throughout her professional career Harriet worked in health care. From 1953 to 1983, she held numerous positions at New York Rockland Psychiatric Center, including staff nurse, nursing instructor, principal of the school of nursing and other clinical administrative roles. Bill was a civil engineer.

Harriet and Bill retired to New Bern in 1984 because of the good weather, hunting, fishing and boating. Harriet immediately became involved in the community. She taught part time in the Nursing Program at Craven Community College and at the Jones County Unit of Lenoir Community College. They joined the Lutheran Church and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. She served on the Human Rights Committee at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro. She served as a court appointed guardian ad litem for twenty years. Joining the Tryon Civitan Club, Harriet learned about New Bern. Through Civitan and Social Services, she worked with unwed mothers and abused children.

In 1986 Harriet and Bill looked for a new church home. When they attended Christ Church, the rector, the Rev. Ed Sharp, greeted them. They attended Christ Church the next Sunday. Recognizing them, Mr. Sharp called them by their names and Harriet says “We were Episcopalians,” and they were confirmed later that year.

Harriet served on the vestry and as chairman of the outreach program. She helped Religious Community Services develop a soup kitchen and homeless shelter. She helped Christ Church organize Matthew 25 to assist with community needs, particularly working with “at risk” middle school students. She helped develop Merci Clinic, a free medical clinic.

Harriet participates in Angel Tree, a program to provide Christmas gifts for children of prisoners. She helped with Christ Church’s first refugee family and continues to work with the refugee ministry. She participates in Yokefellow Prison Ministry in Newport and the Listening Ministry at RCS.

Harriet is a member of the Episcopal Church Women. She has served as president of the ECW and St. Frances Chapter. She served as chairman of the Cookie Walk for two years. She has served as Chairman of the Trinity Deanery and is the historian of the Deanery.

MARY TARRY PORTER

May 16, 1913 – January 18, 2004

by Episcopal Church Women, All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Hamlet, NC, 2016

Mary Tarry Porter

Mary Tarry Porter was born in Vance County, North Carolina, to parents, Albin Rawlins Tarry and Mary Alston Tarry. As a young child Mary had polio. Her parents bought her a pony to ride, so she could be active as she recovered from her serious illness. Mary was left with a lifelong limp, but she never let this keep her from having an active life.

Mary always had a happy and cheerful outlook. She became an elementary school teacher and taught for 33 years. She moved to Hamlet in 1940, when she married Jack Franklin Porter, who was a Yard Master for the Seaboard Airline Railroad. She continued teaching in Richmond County schools.

Mary became an active member of All Saints’ Episcopal Church where she taught Sunday School and was involved in both the Altar Guild and the Episcopal Church Women (ECW). She served various times as ECW president.

Mary and Jack had one child, a son, John Franklin Porter, who grew up at All Saints’. A very bright young boy and a good student, Franklin graduated from both Wake Forest College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then became a pharmacist.

Mary loved children and the ECW at All Saints’ helped the children of Thompson Children’s Home in many ways. As a group the ECW would adopt one of the cabins, then members would always remember the birthdays of the children residing in that cabin. ECW members lovingly called Mary “The Mother” of the children they adopted. Mary was also in charge of the parish Christmas pageant and she considered it a special joy to get to work with the children at Christmas time.

In other parish activities Mary was a member of the Wednesday afternoon prayer group. She also served many times on the Moncure Trust Fund as Chair Person to oversee the work with Social Services and other organizations helping those in need, especially the elderly.

Mary was a loving and caring person. When Margaretta Sanford, an All Saints’ member who had no family of her own, became ill, Mary came to her aid and took charge to see that she got the proper care at the nursing home where she resided.

After Mary and her son passed away, All Saints’ honored them by installing two beautiful stained glass windows in the sanctuary of the church.