Mary Kay Moss Meier

Mary Kay Moss Meier, beloved and devoted wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin and friend, passed away on Sunday, December 27, at Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point, North Carolina.

Mary Kay was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 7, 1927, and grew up in

Richmond, Alexandria, and Norfolk. Along with her loving parents and older sister, she was blessed with a very large extended family whose love and devotion to one another greatly influenced her. Her childhood memories were full of wonderful times spent with family in Richmond, Dinwiddie and Petersburg.

Mary Kay graduated from Norfolk’s Granby High School in 1944 and attended the College of William and Mary. She married Bernard Jones Meier, her high school sweetheart, at Bruton Parrish Church in Williamsburg on June 21, 1947. Mary Kay and BJ spent the majority of their 43 years of marriage in Tidewater, where they raised their three children, and in Northern Virginia.

A woman ahead of her time, Mary Kay had a very successful career. After working for over 30 years in personnel and Human Resources, she retired in 1993 as the Human Resource and Benefits Director of McKenna, Conner and Cuneo, a top tier law firm in Washington, DC.

Following BJ’s death in 1991, Mary Kay relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina, to be close to her daughter. She quickly made Greensboro her home. Mary Kay was an active member at Christ United Methodist Church and took many classes at Shepherd’s Center. She was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, volunteered at Higher Ground, and participated in a writing group. She was very interested in genealogy, tracing her family ancestry back hundreds of years. Her research culminated in a book she wrote about her mother’s family tree. She loved antiques, cooking, bridge, gardening, and jigsaw puzzles. Her smile and twinkling blue eyes lit up the room.

Most of all, Mary Kay loved her family. Family always came first. Her love, support, encouragement and optimism set a high bar for her children and grandchildren to follow. She was also a devoted caregiver, caring for her parents, husband, father-in-law and great aunt in their final years even as she continued to work. In her later years, Mary Kay relished her role as grandmother. Her kitchen table and screened-in porch were centers of family life, and her Christmas cookie parties, movie nights, and backyard projects were second to none. She spoiled her grandkids as children and occasionally mortified them as teenagers, but they never doubted her “bushels and bushels” of love.

Mary Kay was preceded in death by her husband, Bernard Jones Meier, parents, Joseph Mack and Gertrude Knott Moss, sister and brother-in-law, Willye Frances and Charles Clay Roberts, Jr., son-in-law, William Clayton Connor, and many beloved aunts, uncles and cousins.

Mary Kay is survived by her children, Richard Montague Meier (Merna) of Reno, Nevada, David Rittenhouse Meier (Jessica) of Norfolk, Virginia, and Catherine Meier Connor of Jamestown, North Carolina, her grandchildren, Meredith, Peter (Lyndsay), Will, JD, and Matthew (Grace) Meier, Karen Connor McGugan (Will) and Kit Connor, her great-grandchildren, Clayton and Catherine McGugan and Andersen Meier, her honorary children, Charles Clay Roberts III and Pamela Selfridge Ruane, and many beloved cousins. Mary Kay’s family would like to thank the nurses and staff at Congdon House at Pennybyrn at Maryfield for the loving and compassionate care she received in her final years.