Notes for: Mary Evelyn Godbey
From Rootsweb Obituaries:
JACKMAN, Mary Evelyn (GODBEY); 76; ; Clemmons C (NC); 2006-4-27; wrabb
JACKMAN, Mary Evelyn (GODBEY); 76; Bartlett NE>Raleigh NC; Raleigh N & O; 2006-4-23; atjaden
JACKMAN, Mary Evelyn (GODBEY); 76; Bartlett NE>Winston-Salem NC; Winston-Salem J; 2006-4-23; msty
From http://www.genlookups.com/nc/webbbs_config.pl/read/137:
Mary Evelyn Godbey Jackman
Mary Evelyn Godbey Jackman, 76, of Raleigh died April 16. She was the mother of Rev. John Jackman, pastor of Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, and often visited the Winston-Salem area. She was born in Bartlett, Neb. in 1929, she was a career teacher in the Raleigh school system. She was married to the late James E. Jackman. The daughter of a Methodist minister and a music teacher, her life was directed by faith and inspired by music. Her greatest joy came from helping and shaping the lives of others, not only her students but also the 31 student teachers that she mentored. At Raleigh Moravian Church she served twice on the Board of Elders, twice served as Sunday-school superintendent, and served on the Christian Education Committee. Singing in the choir was in important part of her life, and she participated in two Moravian Music Festivals. In recent years, she served as a Bethel Bible Study teacher at the church. She was active in Cardinal Key National Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society, Delta Kappa Gamma Honor Society, and the PEO Sisterhood. She was a lifetime member of the National Educator’s Association.
Surviving are her sons, Stephen Jackman, a designer at Rare Designs in Raleigh, and Rev. John Jackman, a Moravian pastor and filmmaker in Lewisville; daughter-in-law Debra Jackman; and her grandchildren, Andrew and Abigail.
A memorial service was held at Raleigh Moravian Church.
From http://www.jamesjackman.org/content/pages/biography.php:
James Everett Jackman was born on March 21, 1925 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was the first child of the Rev. Everett and Mrs.Helen (Hinson) Jackman. His father was a Methodist minister who received his degree from Boston University. His siblings were Ruth, Roberta and younger brother Philip.
Everett became pastor of the Methodist Church in Athol, Massachusetts, where the family lived in the church parsonage next door to the Starrett family mansion, founders of the Starrett Tool Company. Everett built a summer cabin outside of town on a lake where the four children had very happy memories.
As World War Two started, Jim was wrestling with issues of faith and pacifism. He went into the Army as a conscientious objector and served as a surgical technician in the 239th General Hospital in the European Theatre medical assistant in Patton's army in France, helping many but not carrying a firearm. While there, he met a lifelong friend, Jimmie Waldron, who shared his fascination with art, especially oil painting. He regularly attended the Paris Quaker meetings, and was very influenced by their beliefs. While in Paris, he also had his first encounter with a Moravian pastor, whose beliefs resonated with him - he wrote his father a lengthy letter about the meeting.
After his discharge, he attended Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he graduated with High Distinction in 1950, and received academic honors from Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Gamma Mu. It was there that he met Mary Evelyn Godbey, the daughter of another Methodist pastor. He always told the story of the first time he saw her, coming back from a Methodist Youth meeting. He knew then that she was the girl - though Mary didn't think too much of the pipe-smoking Jim at first! He waited quite a while before asking her out on a date - but the relationship soon blossomed into a great love for both of them. They were married in 1950.
He went on to do graduate work in philosophy at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he served as a graduate assistant, studying with the Dutch philosopher O. K. Bouwsma. During this time, he was licensed as an ordained deacon of the Methodist Church and served pastorates in Walthill and Ceresco, Nebraska. In 1954, he accepted a scholarship to further graduate study in philosophy at Duke University in Durham, NC.
Mary had grown up in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl and had always yearned to live somewhere that was greener and less bleak than the Nebraska of the depression. Both of them fell in love with the lush greenery of North Carolina and enjoyed living on the beautiful campus of Duke. But Jim's studies did not go as well - his beliefs were tangentially opposed to much of the faculty there, and bouts of depression left him unable to finish his thesis.
In 1956 he took a job as a proofreader at the Durham Herald newspaper. Son John Philip was born in 1957, and Jim's colleagues at the paper were so overwhelmed with the new Dad's enthusiasm one of them is reputed to have said, "Jeez, you'd think Jackman was the first Dad to ever have a baby!" In 1959 he became Assistant State Desk Editor at the Raleigh News & Observer, and the young family moved to Raleigh. In 1961, son Stephen Wood was born. In 1964, he took a job as editor for the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction, where he worked for the Department of Public Information and then later the Division of Vocational Education until his retirement in 1986. Colleagues at the NCSDPI recall Jim's humor and good nature, as well as the classical music that constantly emanated from his office.
Jim's love of children was most often evident in public places, when he would go and talk to almost any child. After his retirement, Jim enjoyed working with children in the after school programs at the Boys Club and the YWCA.
Though Methodist by background, Jim and his family attended the old United Church in Raleigh because it was a center of activity for the Civil Rights movement. Jim and Mary were very active in the Civil Rights movement, and were part of the coalition of black and white churches that banded together during the sixties to share activities and break down the cultural walls. We lived from 1961 to 1968 in an apartment in a mixed race neighborhood, and Steve and John both grew up in an atmosphere of racial and cultural tolerance that was exceptional for the time.
In 1974, the family joined Raleigh Moravian Church. Jim's studies had included both philosophy and theology, and he spent many months researching the history, beliefs, and theology of the Moravian Church before that change; and he found the traditions and beliefs to resonate with his personal outlook. "I was a Moravian all the way along," he said, "I just didn't know it." Active involvement in the Moravian Church was an intensely important part of his life. He was a regular member of the Raleigh Moravian Choir for many years.
Like many editors, Jim loved words, their derivation and creative usage. Words were both toys and a serious business to him, the building blocks of language and meaning. His hobbies included reading, poetry, crossword puzzles, art, music, and a lifelong intense interest in philosophy and theology. He also loved tinkering, and designed and built his own sailboat.
Alzheimer's disease and a heart condition began to take a toll, and Dad gradually slipped away from us during the 1990s, forgetting the many stories he had told so often before and which had been so significant to him. He was a bit like the Dad in Big Fish; you weren't always sure that his stories were quite true - but in many cases we found out later that they were.
Jim died of heart failure in 2003, and was interred in the Moravian section of the historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh. At his memorial service, his favorite organ piece, Widor's Organ Symphony #5 in F Minor was payed in his honor.
Mary died unexpectedly in 2006 while visiting son John and daughter-in law Debbie in Winston-Salem and preparing to attend the Moravian Easter Sunrise service with her sister Ruth.
They are survived by their sons Stephen Jackman, a designer in Raleigh, and the Reverend John Jackman, a Moravian pastor and filmmaker in the Winston-Salem area, his wife Debbie, and two grandchildren, Andrew (23) and Abigail (15).