Maybell “Mabel” Frances (Truslow) Napier, 97, of Wintergreen, VA, went to be with her Lord on Saturday, March 2, 2019, at Augusta Nursing and Rehab Center, Fishersville, of complications from the flu.
She was born at home in Wintergreen on October 2, 1921, the first child of the late Vernon Shepherd and Clora Belle Constance (Puckett) Truslow. She knew hard work from an early age, helping her father in the cornfields, helping her mother with housework, all the while keeping a watchful eye on her younger siblings whom she loved dearly. After she married, she grew a garden, raised chickens and sold or bartered eggs for groceries, milked as many as twelve cows twice daily, sold cream to the creamery, aided her husband with the farm, and did various jobs of a country woman. Some of her upbringing experiences were told to Lynn Coffey in her book, “Mountain Folk.”
Mabel was a Godly woman and a life-long member of Wintergreen Christian Church, where she in younger years taught Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, helped prepare for church lawn parties or any other church activity, and led her children to Christ.
Being a family-devoted mother, before her children began first grade she learned to drive the family automobile (a 1949 Willis Jeep-straight drive) so she could participate in school activities in support of the children. She, in particular, and sometimes, Owen, chaperoned many school activities and when the children were asked if a parent could travel on band bus trips, she became very familiar with the term, “My Mama will.”
Mabel was an ingenious person in that if she needed something around the house like a side table or bookcase, she would gather the materials and make it herself. She could turn scraps into something very useful. Some of her handiwork still remains in the Napier home place. She even took piano lessons with the children, and frequently after supper in the evening, she would sit at the piano to play and sing her favorite hymns. She enjoyed working with the fine nurses and aides where she had been a resident for eleven years. She particularly enjoyed the Bible studies, gospel music groups, and was a bingo wiz.
She felt God had blessed her with the gift of two children, son, Roger Owen Napier (Karen) of Stuarts Draft, and daughter, Linda May N. Mawyer (Bobby) of Mt. Pleasant, SC; grandchildren, Cameron Faye (Napier) Knick (Shon) and Tyler Owen Napier both of Stuarts Draft, Stacy (Mawyer) Burback (Jimmy) of Fort Mill, SC and Holly (Mawyer) Boggs (Dustin) of Mt. Pleasant, SC; great-grandchildren, Makaila Faye Napier and Clinton Owen Knick both of Stuarts Draft, Sydney Bryant Burback and Grant Emerson Burback both of Fort Mill, SC and Estelle Ruby Boggs and Hattie-Montgomery Boggs both of Mt. Pleasant, SC. Also surviving is her baby brother, James Carroll Truslow and wife, Joyce, of Lovingston, and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Aubrey Owen Napier; two brothers, John Wesley Truslow and Charlie Joseph Truslow; and sisters, Myrtle McGuffey (Truslow) Coffey and Ollie Lavayer (Truslow) Fitzgerald.
The family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Monday, March 4, 2019 at the Waynesboro Chapel of Reynolds Hamrick Funeral Homes.
A funeral service will be conducted at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, in Rockfish Valley Baptist Church, 3361 Rockfish Valley Hwy, Nellysford, VA with Rev. John Staubus officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery beside her husband.
Active pallbearers will be her children, their spouses, and grandchildren.
Honorary pallbearers will be her great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to the Rockfish Baptist Church.
Relatives and friends may share condolences and memories online with the family by visiting www.reynoldshamrickfuneralhomes.com
