Mary Martha Ellis Arter

March 9, 1931-January 1, 2025

Mary Martha (Ellis) Arter lived fully a life of care, kindness, and empathy.  Born in Capleville, Tennessee on March 9, 1931, she passed away peacefully on New Year’s Day, 2025.  She is preceded in death by her husband, Milton Arter.  They met in western Kentucky at Murray State University in a Russian History class.  Milt was the history major.  Mary received the higher grade.  They both fondly remembered their dollar dates which covered a movie and two cokes.  To arrive to and from the movies, they hitchhiked.  

They married the day before Thanksgiving, November 25, 1953.  Mary was in her first year of teaching elementary school that day in Paducah, Kentucky when her parents picked her up after school and drove her to the campus Presbyterian Church in Murray.  When they returned from their honeymoon that Sunday, Mary, the next day, went back into the classroom and Milt returned to finish his senior year in college.  They were married for over 67 years until Milt passed away in the summer of 2021.

Mary is preceded in death by her parents, Ruth Bowe Ellis and Wallace Gillespie Ellis along with four of her six siblings; Helen Ellis, Sandra Henson, Gwyn Fields and Nat Bowe Ellis.  She is survived by her two remaining siblings; William Ellis and Morgan Caer-Myrddin. 

Mary and Milt are survived by two children; Jim (Paula) Arter and Kimberly (Neal Ross) and four grandsons; Seth Arter, Jesse Ross, Nolan Ross, and Samuel Ross.

Mary dedicated her life to her family and to teaching young children how to read, passing on to them the intrinsic joy of an open book.  As Milt worked his way across Ohio to becoming a superintendent in three different districts, Mary remained in the elementary classroom always expressing her love for teaching young children.  From this, strategies were developed that would be used in Title 1 reading classrooms across the United States.

Throughout their lives, Milt and Mary remained active in the Methodist or Presbyterian church in the town in which they lived.  Mary joined her Methodist church choir in Capleville when she was young and was their pianist from ninth through twelfth grades.  

Upon their retirement from public education in Ohio, they moved to the South for which Mary longed and upon a golf course that Milt desired, residing for 32 years along the 16th fairway outside Hampstead, North Carolina.  While Milt worked diligently to hone his skills on the Olde Point Golf Course, it was Mary who had the hole in one.  Mary’s love of gardening at their Hampstead home produced blooms throughout the year including her camellias and azaleas.

Together they traveled through all 50 states and much of the world.  Mary had a great curiosity and compassion for our world often mixing their travels with her life held beliefs and interests.  Their last extended vacations included visiting Prince Edward Island where “Anne of Green Gables” was set and Guernsey Island off the British Coast.  

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be sent to the Topsail Township Friends of the Library in Hampstead, North Carolina or the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City, North Carolina.

The Memorial Ceremony will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16th in the Kenan Chapel in the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina followed by an internment of Mary Arter where she will join her husband at the columbarium at the church.  

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