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WBM december 2017
Gore, whose initial motivation
to join the Colonial Dames was
rooted in her long heritage of fam-ily
involvement, does her part to
preserve history by working in the
Colonial-style grounds of the house.
“My passion is gardening,” she says.
“I really enjoy playing in the gardens
at the Burgwin-Wright House.”
Colonial Dames membership
runs in Wilmington native Jocelyn
Lynch’s family, too. Lynch joined the
organization when she was 25. Now
almost 70, she has enjoyed more
than four decades of membership.
“I joined the Colonial Dames to fol-low
in the footsteps of my mother and
grandmother and especially since my
sweet daddy said I should,” she says.
Gore and Lynch are continuing
the legacy of other members who
left a lasting impression on the
organization. Margaret Hill Jewett
McEachern retired as executive sec-retary
of the North Carolina Society
in 1994, one month before turning
91. She was described as a “Colonial
Dame Extraordinaire” in an article
by past president Lillian Bellamy
Boney in the society’s newsletter,
The Pine Cone.
“No hurricane, snow or rain ever
deterred her from being on the job
Monday through Friday even though
it meant a 10-mile drive from the
family compound on Greenville
Sound,” Boney wrote.
Margaret’s memories of her
36-year career with the society
“range from the sublime to the ridic-ulous,”
the article continues. “There
was the grateful man who kissed her
after a tour of the Burgwin-Wright
House, the large rat she found swim-ming
in the bathroom, the night a
photographer husband of a Dame
tripped the alarm and had to explain
before police took a shot at him,
and the Dame who fell into Joel
Lane’s grave when his remains were
reinterred.”
Christine Lamberton, museum
Jocelyn Lynch, Becky Parsley and Muffy Boylan (above) are members of the Colonial Dames. director for the Burgwin-Wright
PHOTO BY ALLISON POTTER