Mrs. Mary McNease Kinard

Mary Angelyn McNease Kinard, widow of Frank E. Kinard, died at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community on May 9, 2023. A Celebration of Life will be held at 10 o’clock on Saturday, May 13th, in The Chapel of The Holy Spirit at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement community, 1 Still Hopes Drive, West Columbia, SC, conducted by Rev. Douglas Gray. A reception for family and friends will be held immediately following in the Guignard Mansion at Still Hopes. Interment at Rosemont Cemetery, 2699 College St, Newberry, SC 29108 will follow the reception at 1:30 o’clock. Mary Angelyn was born November 15, 1928, the eldest daughter of Dr. Benjamin Wilberne and Alma Wolfe McNease of Fayette, Alabama. She earned an Associates in Arts degree from Stephens College and entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she became a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and earned her Phi Beta Kappa key and a Bachelor of Arts in English. She returned to UNC Chapel Hill and earned a Masters of Library Science. It was at Chapel Hill that she met her future husband Frank, a graduate student at UNC. They were married in 1952 and celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary with a reception for family and friends on July 25, 2017. They were married sixty-eight years until his death in 2021. She and Frank moved to Aiken, SC in 1953 where Frank had accepted a job at the Savannah River Laboratory. There they were members of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church and there their three children were born. Mary served as a librarian at the Aiken County Library. The family moved to Columbia in 1968 where Mary served as a librarian at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School and at Richland County Public Library. She was an active member of Trinity Cathedral where she served as a docent, children’s chapel pianist, and on the needlework guild. The sweaters she knitted for teddy bears were always popular at the Trinity Bazaar. Mary was a versatile and accomplished cook. For her daughters she had printed a collection of recipes, her own and some from family and friends. This proved so popular that it went through eight editions. Mary also served as a docent at Historic Columbia’s Hampton-Preston House. Based on that experience, she and her good friend Frances Jackson wrote and published a novel, A Silence After Trumpets, the story of Sarah Preston, a real-life Southern belle and resident of the house at the time of the Civil War. Later Mary and Frances collaborated on another book, Remember the Year, a fictional account of life in a small town in the early 1940s. Mary Angelyn was preceded in death by her husband Frank, her son, James McNease Kinard, and by her sister, Patricia McNease McCrackin. She is survived by her sister, Judith McNease James of Charleston, IL and by her daughters, Sally K. Bayless (whose husband is Charles Bayless) and Anne Kinard and by her grandchildren, Price, Sarah and Garner Bayless. The family suggests memorials to: The College of Arts and Sciences UNC-Chapel Hill, PO Box 309, Chapel Hill, NC 27514; or to the Trinity Cathedral Foundation, 1100 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29201; or to a charity of choice.

Tributes

Mrs. Mary McNease Kinard

November 15, 1928 - May 9, 2023