“Dr. Mary Sloop
Named State’s Mother of the Year,” from the Statesville
Landmark, May 3, 1951. the photo below shows Drs. Eustice and Mary Sloop.
Charlotte, April
28—Dr. Mary Martin Sloop, Southern educator who has mothered thousands of boys
and girls at Crossnore School, which she founded 38 years ago, was named North
Carolina’s “Mother of the Year” last night.
Her recognition
came at the final session of the 49th annual convention of the North
Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs here. About 1,200 are attending the
convention.
Presentation of the
merit award was made by Senator Clyde R. Hoey.
Mrs. Ed. M.
Anderson of West Jefferson, retiring present of the federation and chairman of
the North Carolina Mother’s Committee, announced that the panel of judges for
the selection was made up of Miss Beatrice Cobb, the Rev. Rexford Campbell and
the Rev. Wilson Nesbitt. Many letter of recommendation were received for Mrs.
Sloop, Mrs. Anderson said.
Long known as “The
Grand Lady of the Blue Ridge,” Mrs. Sloop has helped make possible the
education of more than 3,000 mountain boys and girls who otherwise would not
have had that opportunity. Under her direction Crossmore School has grown from
a small boarding school to a plant including 20 buildings and 250 acres.
Mrs. Sloop, who is
77, is the wife of Dr. Eustace H. Sloop, who has also given outstanding service
in the mountain area. She is the mother to two children, Dr. Emma Sloop Fink
and Dr. William M. Sloop. Dr. Fink was graduated in medicine from Vanderbilt
University.
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“Mrs. Mary Sloop
Named ‘American Mother of 1951,’” from the Statesville
Landmark, May 3, 1951
New York, May
2—Mrs. Mary T. Martin Sloop of Crossnore, N.C., a 77-year-old doctor known as
the “Grand Lady of the Blue Ridge” for her work with mountain children, was
named yesterday the “American Mother of 1951.”
Only last Friday,
Dr. Sloop was selected as North Carolina’s “Mother of the Year.”
Dr. Sloop was
picked by the American Mothers Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation, an
organization devoted to the welfare of mothers and children.
She is the wife of
a country doctor, Dr. Eustace H. Sloop, and since 1911 has been practicing
medicine with her husband.
Feats of Crossnore
She also founded
Crossnore School for underprivileged children and has been credited with
bringing good roads, modern farming methods, religious tolerance, a hospital
and dental clinic, and vocational instruction to Avery County, N.C.
She has two
children, both doctors. Dr. Emma Sloop Fink, herself a mother of three
children, practices at Crossnore School, and Dr. William Martin Sloop runs a
dental clinic for charity cases in the county.
The American
Mothers Committee for North Carolina, which nominated Dr. Sloop for the
national honor, wrote to the national committee, “She is considered by
thousands of friends as the first citizen of North Carolina. Single-handed she
has driving out moonshiners and shamed the earlier mountaineers into sending
their children to school.”
When informed of
her selection, Dr. Sloop said, “I appreciate it more than I can say. I feel
tremendously humble. Words fail me.” But she managed to add, “My work was made
possible by the wonderful help I had and the type of children—mountain
children—that I had to deal with.
“As for my own
children, they’re more like their father than their mother.”
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For more information on the Sloops, see http://ncpedia.org/biography/sloop-mary
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