Henrietta Proudfoot

Henrietta Evelyn (Niebuhr) Proudfoot, 97, passed away peacefully on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at Cypress Glen in Greenville, North Carolina. Henri, as she was popularly known, was born in New Jersey on June 17, 1928, to the late Frederick and Evelyn Niebuhr. Henri was preceded in death by her husband, Noel.

Henri and Noel were an inseparable couple. They first met as students at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, and were married for 68 years. Henrietta graduated with a degree in pharmacy and managed a pharmacy after college.

Following their graduations from the university, Noel & Henrietta Proudfoot moved to Dayton, Ohio where Noel was a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Air Force. Henri and Noel then moved to Rochester, New York for work with Eastman Kodak.

They were both active in the Methodist Church in Rochester and Greece, New York, Bridgewater, New Jersey, and later in New Bern, North Carolina, and finally in Greenville, NC at Cypress Glen. In Bridgewater, Henri was the president of the garden club and chair of several Methodist church committees. In both New Bern and Cypress Glen, she and Noel were members of the Bell Choir and sang in the church choir. Henri and Noel developed and built a Prayer Walk at the New Bern Methodist Church as a place for the community to pursue prayer and meditation.

In New Bern, they hosted and mentored many refugees from Asia. Henri mentored young mothers, often preparing a meal for them at the church while she shared Bible lessons and practical advice for these new Moms. She loved to cook for others and was a skilled cook. She loved to learn new recipes, honing her talent in the kitchen to prepare and serve gourmet meals that brought high praise from her family and friends alike. It was one of the many ways she used her skills and gifts to serve others. Writing letters was another.

Henri was an avid reader and a dedicated letter writer. She wrote every letter by hand, her beautiful cursive script dancing across each page. She was also skilled as a calligrapher and the Swiss German folk art of intricate paper cutting called Scherenschnitte. She was not a fan of telephones, particularly in the years when long-distance calls were overly expensive, charging the caller by the minute. With her pen, a box of elegant stationery and a roll of first-class stamps, she successfully maintained contact with each of her children after they left home for college and later, when they were settled in homes of their own. She also stayed connected with her extended family, sharing family news and keeping in touch with an ever-widening number of college and church friends, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, and nephews. Her letters were a godsend, full of positive thoughts and encouragement, treasured and saved for years, to be read and re-read by the recipients.

Henri and Noel both liked gardening, including updating and maintaining the memory garden at Cypress Glen. They were Master Gardeners and had maintained a huge vegetable garden at their Rochester home to help feed the family. Their home was landscaped with a variety of beautiful flowers, climbing vines, and colorful myrtle.

In addition to nurturing a growing family of six children, Henri was an enthusiastic traveler, camping all along the East coast. They were sailors and traveled in their own sailboat during their time living in New York, New Jersey and North Carolina.

In the late 1950s, they and their four young sons moved to Panama City, Panama for two years while Noel helped open a color film processing lab in that Central American nation. A few years later, they surprised their friends by packing up their now six children for a three-week trip to Europe, renting a VW bus and driving across Luxembourg, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. They repeated this European vacation including Henri’s mother and later ventured back to more countries in South America, Asia, the Middle East, and throughout North America.

Together they created a lifetime of travel, adventures, and memories.

Henri is survived by her six children: Kenneth Neil (Ann Marie); David Noel (Cindy); Donald Wayne (Vickie); Mark Allan (Hanne); Linda Joy Topp (Kevin Topp); and Jeanette Leigh Altavela (Edd Altavela).

She is further survived by her 13 grandchildren: Odette, Alexander, Daniel, Dylan, Nicholas, Ryan, Dane, Danielle, Thomas, Steven, Kristin, Gabrielle, and Olivia. She is also survived by eight great-grandchildren: Wren, Ivy, Ames, Aiden, Elijah, Hazel, Adelyn Joy, and Lainey Hope.

In addition to her husband Noel, Henri was preceded in death by her sister, Diana Ramoth, and two of her grandsons, Kenneth Noel Benjamin Proudfoot and Aaron Thomas Proudfoot.

Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Henri’s name to Samaritan’s Purse at https://www.samaritanspurse.org/memorial-page/henrietta-proudfoot-greenvillw-nc/

Cotten Funeral Home is honored to serve the family and friends of Henrietta Proudfoot.