Mary Margaret Kendrick

This was obvious when she was chief majorette her last two years of high school in her home town of LaGrange, North Carolina (population 2,000). As you may know, a majorette is a “baton twirler whose performance is usually accompanied by dance, movement, or gymnastics.” For Mary Margaret, this included twirling a fire baton. Even then she was already a lady on fire!

After she graduated from college in 1968 she traveled with her aunt (who is Irish) to Northern Ireland, where she got a job as an airline stewardess for a Northern Irish shuttle airway.

When she came back to the States, she worked as a social worker in Goldsboro, NC where she took skydiving lessons. After meeting then-Second-Lieutenant Frank Kendrick at a party on Seymore Johnson Air Force Base, she soon had a skydiving partner. They were married March 31, 1973.

They then spent four and a half years in Germany. While there, Mary Margaret started taking yoga lessons, developed a passion for it, and began teaching yoga. She said that in the 1970’s yoga was considered almost a cult, as she was reminded when she asked the Air Force Officers club in Germany about teaching yoga there and she was told, “No, we have a certain reputation to maintain here.”

Also while there, she earned her Master’s in Counseling through Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) European Division. Then they spent four years at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska, where their son Chris was born. This was followed by three years at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. While in Arizona, she worked at the library at Mesa Community College and became a certified Montessori teacher. From there, they returned to Stuttgart, Germany for another three years. They moved to Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter.

During Frank’s last year in the Air Force, he was deployed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for nine months during the first Gulf War (1990-1991). Mary Margaret suddenly became a “single parent” having to raise their son, maintain a home and work. During his absence, Mary Margaret volunteered on the base suicide hotline, as most of the military members at Shaw AFB were deployed resulting in very stressful times for families at Shaw.

While Frank worked his last three years before retirement from Air Force in 1991, Mary Margaret commuted to Columbia to begin what would become a 24-year career at Midlands Technical College (MTC), which she calls “an excellent employer” and “an amazing place to work.” In her job within Student Support Services, she headed the unit she named CAREERS (College Activities Relate Educational Experiences Resulting in Success). CAREERS served single parents and “non-traditional students” including older adults, males in nursing, and females in STEM majors (science, technology, engineering, and math).

When Frank retired from the Air Force, he and Mary Margaret moved to Columbia.

In June 1998, after hearing an MTC in-service presentation about a new Toastmasters club on campus, Mary Margaret was interested and joined. She had previously belonged to a group called Toastmistress, which was formed when Toastmasters International did not accept women. After she held several official Mid Tech Challengers club offices, she was considered the club’s perennial “Vice President of Laughter” because of her love of telling jokes. When she was Jokemaster, she delighted in working the word of the day into her joke.

During their time in Columbia, Mary Margaret and Frank traveled extensively, took ballroom dancing lessons, and remained very active in both their church and their Rotary Club. Mary Margaret accompanied Frank on mission trips to Mexico and Costa Rica. She said she was amazed at all the ways she could help build churches and schools.

She also became a part of her church’s clown ministry as “M&M the Clown,” a talented juggler and maker of balloon animals. She performed in her church and in charity events including the 2001 and 2002 Saint Patrick’s Day Parades in Five Points. In other years, she rode in that parade in her white 1968 Camaro convertible her dad gave to her for college graduation.

Following the death of both Mary Margaret’s parents, she discovered and immersed herself in The Work of Byron Katie (see the 2004 book of that name). The Work is a process that identifies and questions the thoughts that cause suffering. Mary Margaret became a Certified Facilitator of the Work and regularly served on the helpline. She offered numerous seminars and provided individual coaching sessions on The Work.

In 2006, Mary Margaret joined the Rotary Club of Five Points. She was a great example of “Service Above Self” in the many Rotary projects she served.

Mary Margaret retired from Midlands Technical College in 2011 and Frank retired four months later. About five years ago, Mary Margaret’s love of yoga (which she had maintained as a practice) flamed again, and she earned her instructor certification and began teaching classes at her church. She also enjoyed Pilates and weight lifting and became a certified personal trainer.

Mary Margaret lived life to the fullest through love, service, and laughter in all she did and in the lives of those around her.

Surviving are her husband of 47 years, Frank Lee Kendrick; son, Christopher Lee Kendrick (Brooke) of Charleston; four grandchildren, William Gray Kendrick, Benjamin Brooks Kendrick, Russie Kathleen Kendrick, and John Morgan Kendrick; and brother, Eugene Hamilton Gray, Jr. (Deborah) of LaGrange, NC.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her sister, Helen Jeanette Gray.

A private funeral service for Mary Margaret will be held Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at Shandon United Methodist Church, with burial in Fort Jackson National Cemetery to follow. A livestream of the funeral service will begin at 11:55 a.m. on Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DunbarDevine

Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.