Mary Olivia Cloninger Boggs

The funeral will be held on Monday, February 4, 2013, 11:00 a.m., at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Claremont, Rev. Dr. Gary Haddock and Rev. Dr. Terry Boggs officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Mary’s family will receive friends from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. at the church prior to the service.

Born September 24, 1923, Mary was the daughter of the late Henry Alfred Cloninger and Julia Estelle Busbee Cloninger. She was baptized December 29, 1923, and confirmed in the faith September 1937 in St. Mark Church. Mary Olivia and James Russell Boggs were married December 27, 1943, in St. Mark Church.

Mary graduated from Claremont High School, completed a one-year business and accounting program at Lenoir Rhyne College, and developed a career in bookkeeping, office management, and later as a medical stenographer for a group of physicians and surgeons at military hospitals in Virginia and Kansas. Mary also served with her husband in the ministry of congregational life in Liberty, NC; Cedar Grove Lutheran Church, Leesville, SC; United Lutheran Church mission in Montgomery, AL; as co-developer of Hope Lutheran Mission ELCA, Vance, SC; and in Russell’s military career as a chaplain for 23 years in various assignments including Germany and Okinawa.

Mary, an avid reader all her life, enjoyed an avocation as a genealogical researcher, publishing The Indubitable Busbees and Their Kin. In 2004, she received from the North Carolina Society of Historians, Inc, the Robert Bruce Cooke Family History Book Award for her writing and her many contributions to the collection, preservation and perpetuation of North Carolina’s rich history.

Mary possessed a courageous yet gentle compassion, always seeking the best in each person, and advocating in many and various ways on behalf of others. She loved deeply and well, a woman who thought and acted from her core values of family and faith, and centered her journey in the joy and promise of the old, old story, even to the end. She nestled in her hospitable southern roots, and remained always hopeful that the promise of abundant life for all will one day come.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, J. Russell Boggs, Chaplain (Col.); a sister, Rachel C. Smith; and brothers, Quentin Kermit Cloninger and James Farrell Cloninger.

She is survived by her daughter, Olivian Russell Boggs Boon and husband, James, of Princeton, NJ; son, Terry Kristan Boggs and wife, Marcia VanGundy Boggs, of Fort Worth, Texas; grandchildren, Catherine Olivia Boon Cuillé (Lionel), St. Louis; Jessica Alexis Boon, Chapel Hill, NC; Kristan VanGundy Boggs, Dallas, TX; Ashley Olivia Boggs Miller (Brian) Fort Worth, TX; great-grandchildren, Ian Cress Boggs, Elena Livia Cuillé, Rémi James Cuillé, Alexander Christian Miller, Abigail Lou Miller, Graham Benton Miller; and Mary’s brother, Henry Carlisle Cloninger (Doris), Blacksburg, SC; and a host of nieces and nephews and their families.

Memorials may be made to St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3216 West Main Street, Claremont, NC 28610, and/or Lenior Rhyne University, 625 7th Ave NE, Hickory, NC.