Mildred Hartness Thompson, longtime resident of The Pines at Davidson and member of Davidson College Presbyterian Church, died Tuesday, June 3, 2008. She was 97. A visiting hour is scheduled Friday, June 6, at 10 a.m., followed by the funeral at 11 at Raymer Funeral Home, 16901 Old Statesville Road, Huntersville. Burial will follow, at Davidson College Cemetery. Read on for a full death notice from Raymer Funeral Home.

MILDRED HARTNESS THOMPSON

Mrs. Mildred Hartness Thompson, longtime resident of The Pines at Davidson, died early Tuesday morning, June 3, 2008, after more than 97 years of living a full and zestful life.

Born May 8, 1911 to William Robert and Rachel Matheny Hartness, she was the fifth of seven children in a loving, traditional home. She early developed deep and lasting respect and affection for her parents and her four sisters and two brothers. Growing up in Mooresville, N.C., she was full of high spirits, celebrating her brother Robert’s basketball achievements in high school and at Duke, and herself playing, as the leading scorer, on Mooresville’s high school girls’ state championship basketball team. She began driving the family car at age 12 (at a time when no driver’s license was required), and, as a teenager, she once roller skated from Mooresville to Davidson (seeing only two cars along the way). As a student at Women’s College in Greensboro , she was once campused for riding a fire truck into town.

She married Wilburn Arthur (“Wib”) Thompson of Davidson in 1934, devotedly sharing life and family with him until his death in 1984. As products of the Great Depression, Mildred and Wib were always frugal and were able to find abundant joy in family and simple pleasures. Conscious of how very blessed she was, she was often concerned for the plight and pain of the poor and unfortunate. She practiced charity and was involved in community and civic work of all kinds. She was an active member of the Davidson College Presbyterian Church from 1935 until health problems limited her in recent years. She was also always supportive of Wib in all his endeavors as a civic, church, and business leader in Davidson for more than 50 years. When he received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award from Davidson College in 1981, he said that she was the one who deserved the award. She often put others before herself.

A committed and conscientious homemaker, she also worked as an administrative assistant for Davidson College for over 10 years during the late 1950s and the 1960s. She was an avid bridge player and loved card games and horse racing. An enthusiastic fan of Davidson basketball, she especially enjoyed watching the great teams of coach Lefty Driesell. She had strange recurring dreams in which she was called out of the stands to play for Lefty and won the championship, and awoke with a “charley horse.” Even in her later years, until recent times, she regularly watched the news and “Meet the Press,” and, in spite of failing eyesight, enjoyed sports on television, developing an interest in golf and becoming a Tiger Woods fan. It was typical of her that even as an elderly lady, she was sure that she could still roller skate, dance the Charleston , and shoot free throws. She kept her sense of duty, her love of family, her kind concern for others, and her sense of humor to the end. She was a special lady.

The family expresses its greatest appreciation to the wonderfully dedicated nurses and other devoted staff of The Pines at Davidson, and to Dr. Ronnie Beamon, for their years of kind and attentive care to the needs of Mrs. Thompson.

She is pre-deceased by her husband, and by her sisters Lena Cornelius and Elizabeth Fisher and by brothers Dr. J. Frederick Hartness and W. Robert Hartness. She is survived by her beloved sisters, Lillian Deaton (Mrs. C.M.) of Greensboro and Rachel Moir (Mrs. T.R.) of Raleigh , and by her son, Dr. William A. Thompson of Charlotte, and his wife Frances Jones Thompson; by granddaughters—in whom she took special joy—Rebecca W. Thompson of Ascot, England, and Carroll Thompson Vuncannon and husband Zac of Washington D.C.; by great grandson Bridger Adkinson of Pocatello, Idaho; by step grandsons Hunter and Alex Brackett, and their wives, Kristye and Callie, of Chapel Hill and Richmond, respectively. She is also survived by a number of cherished nieces and nephews for whom she had the greatest affection.

There will be visitation a Raymer Funeral Home at 10 AM on Friday, June 6, followed by the funeral service there at 11:00 . Interment will follow in the Davidson College Cemetery .

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Crisis Assistance Ministry, 500A Spratt St., Charlotte, NC 28206, or to A Child’s Place, PO Box 33302 , Charlotte , NC 28233; or to the Resident Support Fund of The Pines at Davidson.

Raymer Funeral Home, 16901 Old Statesville Road , Huntersville (I-77, Exit 25), is serving the family.