EDNA D. WILSON
MOUNT OLIVE -- Edna Dinkins Wilson, 83, died Saturday at Britthaven of Newport.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. from the First United Methodist Church of Mount Olive with Dr. Dennis Draper, Jr. officiating. Interment will be in Maplewood Cemetery in Mount Olive.
Born in Forsythe County, she was the daughter of Robert Lee Dinkins and Laura Kiger Dinkins, both deceased. She graduated from Lewisville High School in 1937, was a cum laude graduate of Western Carolina University in 1940, and earned her Master's Degree from East Carolina University in 1968. Mount Olive High School was her first teaching assignment after college, where she also coached girls' basketball and the debate team. She met and married her husband of 62 years, Norbert Bahnson Wilson, in 1941. Other high schools at which she taught English and social studies were Piney Grove, North Duplin, Goldsboro, and Southern Wayne.
A charter member of the the North Carolina Council of Social Studies, she was an office-holder for more than 12 years until her retirement in 1983. She received numerous honors from local, state, and national organizations: Teacher of the Year, Personality of the South, Department Chair, and the Pinecrest Laboratory Program staff, among many.
In 1984, she was named Mount Olive's Outstanding Senior Citizen in large part due to the many projects in education, church, and community which benefited from her organizational skills and tireless devotion. Although she was brought up in the West Bend Missionary Baptist Church, after her marriage, she became a long-time active member of the First United Methodist Church of Mount Olive.
She is survived by a son, Norbert Bahnson Wilson Jr. and his wife, Candice of Virginia Beach, Va.; a daughter, Carol Wilson Brewer Conner and her husband, Wallace, of Pine Knoll Shores; an adopted daughter, Margaret Ann Knowles Chalk of Morehead City; four grandchildren, Christopher Brandon Brewer and his wife, Kara Kirk Brewer, of Chapel Hill, Brette Brewer Best and her husband, Roman C. Best, of Apex, Wilson Clate Brewer of Raleigh, and Norbert "Bert" Richard Wilson of Virginia Beach; and special friend and caregiver, Patty Brock of Mount Olive.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Norbert, their daughter, Laura Lenoir Wilson, three brothers, and five sisters.
The family will receive friends and family from 7 until 9 p.m. today at Tyndall Funeral Home in Mount Olive, and at other times at the home, 400 Norbert Wilson Street, Mount Olive.
In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the First United Methodist Church, PO Box 420, Mount Olive, NC 28365.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on August 9, 2004 1:34 PM