Carrie Mae Mann

Carrie Mae Griffin Mann, long time resident of Raleigh, died at age 101 at the Cypress Rosewood of Raleigh on November 10, 2010 while recovering from congestive heart failure. Born on January 22nd, 1909 to Robert and Sarah Amelia Griffin, Carrie Mae spent her early years in Lenoir, Hickory, and Concord. After graduating from Concord High School and attending The North Carolina College For Woman, she left Greensboro during the great depression before graduation to find employment in Raleigh and to join her classmate and friend, Leah Erwin O’Donnell. In 1930, during the Gardner administration, Fred Morrison hired Carrie Mae as a clerical statistician at the new Tax Commission. She was one of two women to be so employed.

While at the Tax Commission, she met a graduate intern, Julian Edward Mann, and after a short courtship they married in 1934 at St. James Lutheran Church in Concord. Two years later, she was granted the first pregnancy leave in state government, following the birth of their first daughter, Mary Matilda. They built their home in the 2500 block of Glenwood Avenue, adjacent to Julian’s sister and brother-in-law, Professor and Mrs. Harvey Blount Mann. After the birth of Katherine and Jule in the 1940s, the couple lived briefly on Brooks Avenue before making their permanent residence on Clark Avenue in the stone masonry home, where Julian’s twin sisters, Edith and Edna Mann, had lived for over twenty years.

Retiring from state government in the 1950s in order to be close to family, Carrie Mae summered in her second home in Hyde County and vacationed on Roanoke Island. The people of Hyde County were so gracious and accepting of her that she never tired of her summers or holidays there. Later in life, after a second retirement from state government at the N.C. Department of Agriculture, and longing to return to her childhood remembrances of vacations in Watauga County, she summered in the family home on Friendship Church Road. There she enjoyed her passion for water color. She had not taken up painting until age 80. She was an avid swimmer until age 98 and spoke fondly of her swimming friends at the YWCA and at Johnson’s Drug Store.

Carrie Mae was a woman of grace, faith, and wisdom. For nearly 80 years she was an active member in the community of faith at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, once serving as treasurer of the congregation, but she will be remembered mostly for her devotion to the church. For over fifty years and well into her nineties, she climbed the sidewalks of Clark Avenue to and from the Lutheran church and always had the family to Sunday lunch afterwards. Likewise, she regularly attended services at the Amity Methodist and St. George’s Episcopal Churches at Lake Landing and Grace Lutheran Church in Boone. She tirelessly devoted her time to her children and grandchildren. She loved everyone, and everyone loved her. Her wisdom, born, perhaps in hardship but perfected by faith, caused her acceptance of all human beings No human frailty could bar her love. It was her nature and her virtue.

Carrie Mae was predeceased in death by her husband, Julian, her four sisters, Ola Hendrix and husband, Gilbert, Winifred Ivey and husband Reece, Orpah Cochran and husband George, Louise Elliot and husband Norman, nephew Harvey Blount Mann, Jr. Surviving are children, Matilda Mann McBurney, Katherine Mann Malcom, and husband, Carl, Julian Mann, III and wife, Diane, grandchildren, Robert Barton McBurney, Jr., John Mann McBurney, Gary Hyman Smith, Julian Bonner Mann and wife, Kelly, Caroline Mann Smith, Jeffrey Thompson Palmore and wife, Angie, and Lori Parker Heath and husband, Brandon, great-grandchildren Randolph, Margaret, and Gray Mann, Aidan Palmore, Parker Heath, nieces Betty Butler and husband Lindy, Dr. Emily Mann Peck, nephew, Edward Bonner Mann, Jr. and wife, Cindy.

A service of celebration for Carrie Mae’s life will be held at 3:00 pm, Saturday, November 13th at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2723 Clark Avenue, Raleigh, North Carolina. The Rev. Royall Yount and Rev. Larry Homes will preside. The family will receive friends immediately following the service at the church. Interment will be held in the Amity Methodist Church Cemetery, Lake Landing, North Carolina at 2:00 pm, Sunday, November 14th. The Rev. Jim Lupton will preside. This service will be followed by a reception at the Community Parrish House at St. George’s Episcopal Church, Lake Landing, North Carolina.

Memorials may be sent in honor of Carrie Mae Mann to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 2723 Clark Avenue, Raleigh, North Carolina 27607; The Friends of Amity, c/o T. J. and Sallie Mann, 88 Sally Lane, Belhaven, North Carolina 27910; St George’s Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 101, Engelhard, North Carolina 27824; or The Assistance League of Raleigh, 900 Ridgefield Drive, Suite 340, Raleigh, North Carolina 27824.

The family extends its deepest gratitude to all the “Saints of the Cypress” who lovingly cared for Carrie Mae during her waning days. Condolences may be sent to www.BrownWynne.com.