Martha Taylor Tay Yeargin Appleyard

Tay was born on January 13, 1964, in Oxford, North Carolina, to Neil Woody Yeargin and Martha Taylor Yeargin. She grew up in several different places, including Kings Mountain, Gastonia, and Dunn, NC, Valdosta, GA, Stonewall, MS, and Tullamore, Republic of Ireland. Tay completed high school at St. Mary’s in Raleigh in 1982 and graduated from St. Mary’s Junior College in 1984 and UNC-Chapel Hill, with a major in English, in 1986. She and Douglas Alan Appleyard were married on June 3, 1989, in St. Mary’s Chapel. They have lived together in Raleigh since 1992 and were blessed with the birth of their son, William Douglas Appleyard, on July 15, 1994, and their daughter, Sarah Martha Appleyard, on February 28, 1996. Tay was employed at various times with American Defender Life Insurance, the North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association, and most recently with St. Michael’s Parish Day School for eight years. She also performed long-term volunteer services for Project Enlightenment, Christ Church, and the theatre program at William G. Enloe High School.

Tay was an avid reader, with a particular love for Southern fiction. She also was a hugely enthusiastic fan of the Tar Heels, especially in basketball. She enjoyed her time spent with the St. Clare’s chapter of the Episcopal Church Women and her long-time dinner club, the “Hungry Mothers.” But the primary love of Tay’s life was for family, and she reveled in the annual beach excursions with the Yeargin family to Nags Head and Emerald Isle and with the Appleyard family to Sunset Beach. To family and to all her friends, Tay was a calm, cheerful, and thoughtful person with immense common sense and an abiding interest in and love for others.

Tay is survived by her husband Douglas, her son William, her daughter Sarah, her parents Neil and Martha Yeargin of Greensboro, her brother Neil Woody Yeargin, Jr., of St. Charles, IL (Justine), and her sister Anna Rives Ruth (James) of Charlotte. In addition, she is survived by eight nieces and nephews and three cousins. In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Tay may be made to Christ Church, 120 East Edenton Street, Raleigh, NC 27601, the Foundation for Women’s Cancer to support the N.E.D. (No Evidence of Disease) project, 230 W. Monroe Street, Suite 2528, Chicago, IL 60606, and the Enloe Arts Guild, 128 Clarendon Crescent, Raleigh, NC 27610.

A celebration of Tay’s life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 1, 2012, at Christ Church, Raleigh.

Arrangements by Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 300 Saint Mary's St. Raleigh, NC.