Mary Etta Mitchell Lee Lawrence

Mitchell, as she always preferred to be called, had lived for many years at her family’s ancestral home in what was originally called Middle Creek Township, where she was born, between Raleigh and Fuquay-Varina. She moved later to The Oaks at Whitaker Glen in Raleigh, where she spent her final years. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Meredith College, and pursued other studies in psychology before becoming a guidance counselor for the Fuquay-Varina public school system. When her husband Lewis Hamel Lawrence, who preceded her in death, began the Garner News and Cary News, she left education to become the administrative head of the newspapers. That position ended with the sale of the papers and her retirement.

Mitchell is survived by her two children, Judge Lewis Bridgers Lawrence (retired), (Judge Jane Fox, wife), of Portland, Oregon and Dr. LeeAnna Michelle Lawrence (Dr. James Cox, husband), of Winston Salem, and by her sister Bonnie Baker, who lives at The Oaks at Whitaker Glen, and by her sister in law Mildred B. Lee of Fuquay-Varina, and several nieces and nephews whom she loved.

Services will be at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 121 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, at 11 A.M. Wednesday, December 4th.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Brown-Wynne, 300 Saint Mary's St., Raleigh, is serving the Lawrence family.