Kathleen (Kaye) Mayer | Eastern NC Now

March 03, 1923 - August 29, 2014

    Kathleen Duncan Mayer (Kaye) passed away Thursday, August 28, 2014.

    Graveside services will be 11:00 am Wednesday, September 3, 2014 at Oakdale Cemetery and will be conducted by Rev. Lee Kinney.

    Kaye was born on March 3, 1923 in Douglasville, GA to Fred Myrick and Gladys Stewart Duncan. Kaye attended Durham, NC, public schools and Duke University. She graduated in 1945 with a BA in English and minors in History and Primary Education.

    While at Duke in 1943, she met Baron Pierson Mayer of Mt. Pleasant, IA. They were married in Duke Chapel on February 22, 1947, following Baron's discharge from the United States Navy.

    Baron's employment with General Electric took the newlyweds to Schenectady, NY, where daughter Marion was born, then to Danvers, MA where Kaye and Baron raised their six children. Kaye echoed Baron's commitment to public service with her participation in Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, the Woman's Club, the Maple Street Congregational Church and the DAR.

    In addition to raising six children, Kaye operated a private kindergarten and taught kindergarten for the Danvers YMCA. She was a sales representative for Elliott Fuels and for Putnam Pantry Candies, served as an historical researcher for the General Israel Putnam Family Trust, wrote a weekly cooking column for the Danvers Herald for more than a decade and did freelance feature writing. She took pride in having her freelance work published in the Danvers Herald, the North Shore Sunday, The Boston Sunday Globe, the Salem Evening News, and the Boston Herald-American, Yankee Magazine, the Hartford Courant, Bittersweet Magazine and the DAR National Magazine.

    Following Baron's retirement, Kaye and he moved to Charlotte, NC, and later to Washington, NC, where she will be buried next to Baron and their daughter, Ellen Pierson Mayer Roberson in Oakdale Cemetery.

    Kaye is survived by two daughters, Marion Stewart (Marty) Mayer of Middleburg, FL and Nancy Mayer Nixon of Rocky Mount, NC, and two sons, Frederick Baron Mayer and wife Judy of Charlotte, NC and William Gilbert Mayer of Laurens, SC. Kaye was preceded in death by two daughters, Emily Mayer Ashburn in 2005 and Ellen Mayer Roberson in 2007.

    Also surviving Kaye are her two younger sisters, Marion Duncan Kortepeter and husband Paul of Indianapolis, IN, and Janice Duncan Lamb and husband Gene of Charlotte, NC, five granddaughters, one grandson, four nieces and three nephews, one great-grandson and her sister-in-law, Dana Mayer Pacejka and husband Frank of Downers Grove, IL. (Of course, a real Southern family counts cousins - first, second and third!)

    In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting the TALKS Mentoring Eastern Shore, P.O. Box 201,Tarboro, NC 27886, Tarboro Community Outreach, Inc., P.O. Box 445, Tarboro, NC 27886 or Compassion & Choices, www.compassionandchoices.org.

    You may address condolences to the family by visiting www.paulfuneralhome.com.

    Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Mayer family.