Margaret Elizabeth McLemore

1910 - 2007  (96 years)

• Name	Margaret Elizabeth McLemore  [1]
  Born	26 Sep 1910	Johnston County, North Carolina   [1]
  Gender	Female
  Died	12 Feb 2007	Johnston County, North Carolina
  Notes	Honored for the "rare store of knowledge concerning economic, political, social and family history (that she) assembled at the (Johnston County) Public Library giving thousands of people opportunity to fulfill their search for family roots and appreciation of the heritage of Johnston County." She was for many years the curator of the Heritage Center of Johnston County in Smithfield, North Carolina. She remains Curator Emeritus. Publication: The News and Observer .. Raleigh, N.C. Date: August 14, 2005 Section: City & State Feature: Tar Heel Of The Week By Marti Maguire - Staff Writer JOHNSTON'S HOME-GROWN HISTORIAN STILL GOING AT 94 SMITHFIELD - Barbours, Woodalls and Creeches beware. If your kin hail from Johnston County - or even passed through in the last few centuries - Margaret Lee knows a thing or two about them. Lee is a walking storehouse of county history. For nearly 40 years, she has clipped newspapers and collected letters; wills and other family memorabilia that form the backbone of the genealogy collection at the Johnston County Heritage Center. Most counties have some kind of local history center; often tucked in the comer of a public library. But thanks largely to Lee, the Johnston Heritage Center boasts thousands of books, photos, microfilm and artifacts, all housed in a three-story building converted from a bank. At 94, Lee still spends about five hours a day, six days a week, at the center, helping people research their ancestry and clipping tidbits from old newspapers and other sources for her voluminous files. "She'd come Sunday if we were open," says the center's director, Wingate Lassiter. Lee says her fascination with history started when she was a child who kept a close eye on her neighbors in the Cleveland area of Johnston County. Her father was a country doctor. "My parents scolded me for being nosy," Lee says. "I think too much curiosity has paid off." Earlier this year, Lee was honored as one of 25 "Living Legends of Johnston County" for her contributions to preserving local history. Her knowledge of local families is also legendary. "She can tell you not only who they are and where they live, but when they came here and where they come from," says Grover Miller, a fellow volunteer at the center. Her blue eyes look for familiar features as soon as she meets someone new, and her first words are always the same: "What's your name?" She smiles knowingly as a red- haired young lady scours a pile of census records for information on her family, the Woodalls. Many county residents, including a county commissioner and the former health director, share the name. "She has the hair of a Woodall," Lee says. Cookie Pope, chairwoman of the Johnston County commissioners, got a lesson on her family history from Lee; to whom she is distantly related. Lee gave her a newspaper clipping recounting a moonshine still being found on the property of Pope's great-grandfather. A doctor's daughter Lee grew up in the Cleveland community, where her father, George Ammie Mclemore, traveled dirt roads treating patients, first in a horse and buggy and later by car. She planned to study at Women's College in Greensboro (now UNC-Greensboro) to become a teacher, but attended classes for only one year. She first postponed college because she had surgery for scoliosis. When her mother, Nellie Johnson McLemore, died in 1934, the 24-year-old Lee took charge of her two brothers and two sisters, the youngest of whom was 8 at the time. That ended her hopes for finishing college. She married in 1941 and had three children. Her husband, Denton Lee, owned a store In Smithfield where he sold and repaired electronics and appliances. He died of a heart attack in 1965. Daughter Mary Nell Ferguson says Lee has collected newspaper clippings and records of special occasions as long as she can remember, whether they were news articles about neighbors or her children's report cards. "Anything that had anything to do with anyone she knew or loved, the clipping would be kept," Ferguson says. "She definitely had an interest in keeping history." Lee had never worked outside the home until 1967, when a librarian offered her $100 to organize newspapers in a room of the county library. She started by clipping articles of interest and filing them by subject. At the same time, she started collecting other bits and pieces, such as copies of the inside covers of family Bibles bearing the handwritten names of generations of owners. When she had enough information, she would collect donations to bind the material in books. For 10 years, she earned minimum wage working at the library part time. Then she retired and continued as a volunteer. Her collection kept growin "She just clipped and gathered until it got so big they no longer, had room in the library," says Miller, the volunteer. History gets a home As the holdings outgrew two library reading rooms, Lee cast her eye on the building across Third Street. When First Citizens Bank vacated the space, she worked with the bank's president and the county commissioners to move the collection there. The center opened in the former bank in 2000. Today, its holdings include hundreds of books like the ones Lee originated. Among them are census records, rolls of Civil War soldiers and lists of county cemeteries, roads and churches. Rotating exhibits greet visitors on the first floor - currently a selection of pottery made in Smithfield in the 1930s. The elevator, in the former bank vault, takes visitors to the third- floor collection that Lee began. Nearly any history book that touches on Johnston can be found on its shelves, and the genealogical information spans Eastern North Carolina and reaches into southern Virginia. Annual "road shows" reap documents and stories from the county's past, and the center solicits artifacts from Johnston families. Visitors come from across the country to research their ancestry. Lee now holds the title of curator emeritus. She takes a cab to the center every day from her home a few miles away. Poor hearing makes it more difficult for her to help researchers, but she still steps in when needed, and she still adds to her files. On a recent morning, her desk was covered with articles from the 1940s on roads being paved. Ferguson says her mother knows she has done a lot to document county history but doesn't dwell on the extent of her contributions. "When she looks around," Ferguson says, "it doesn't occur to her the magnitude of what she's done." MARGARET McLEMORE LEE .. BORN: Sept. 26, 1910, in the Cleveland community in western Johnston County FAMILY: Husband, Denton Farmer Lee, died in 1965 at age 54; daughters, Mary Nell Ferguson of the Cleveland community and Mary Ann Stubbs of Smithfield; son, Denton Farmer Lee of the Cleveland community; surviving siblings, Eloise Grady of Smithfield and Robert McLemore of Springfield, Ohio ANCESTRY: Lee's mother's family were Johnsons who came from Virginia (a branch from the same tree as county namesake Gabriel Johnston; Lee says some just dropped the "t."), Another famous ancestor is Andrew Johnson, part of another branch that moved to Tennessee. The McLemores came to Johnston County from Scotland. EDUCATION: Graduated from Smithfield School and briefly attended Women's College in Greensboro RELIGION: Member, First Presbyterian Church of Smithfield Obituary MARGARET MCLEMORE LEE .. Smithfield (NC) Margaret McLemore Lee - 96-year-old curator emeritus of the Johnston County Heritage Center - died early Monday (12 Feb 2007) at Johnston Memorial Hospital. In 1967 she went to work part-time at the brand-new Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield where she began collecting local history and genealogy in what became known as the Johnston County Room. In 2000, the widely acclaimed collection moved into a separate home of its own across the street: today's Johnston County Heritage Center. Although Mrs. Lee officially retired as a library employee in 1991, she continued her service as a daily volunteer in the Johnston County Room and later at the Heritage Center until a few days before her death. She was born Sept. 26, 1910 in Johnston County's Cleveland Township as Margaret Elizabeth McLemore, daughter of Dr. George A. McLemore and Nellie Emily Johnson McLemore. Her father was a country doctor who moved the family to Smithfield in 1923. Margaret graduated from Smithfield High School in 1927 and attended North Carolina College for Women (today's UNC-Greensboro). She married Denton F. Lee in 1941 and worked as bookkeeper for her husband's radio I and appliance business in Downtown Smithfield until his death in 1965. Mrs. Lee joined Oakland Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Township in 1922 and in 1925 moved her membership to Smithfield's First Presbyterian Church where she served as treasurer of the Sunday School from 1947 till 1982, as the church's first woman ordained deacon, and as president of the Women of the Church. She also served as historian for the Women of the Church of Granville Presbytery as well as Women of the Church of the Synod of North Carolina. During her term as president of the Smithfield Woman's Club in 1963-64, she won national recognition from the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the Sears- Roebuck Foundation for the club's Community Improvement Program. She was the first president, in 1965, of the Historic Hastings House Association, which saved Smithfield's oldest surviving residence. She was organizing regent for the Smith-Bryan Chapter of N.C. Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She was also a charter member of the Johnston County Historical Society. She was a charter member of the Johnston Memorial Hospital Auxiliary and served as a volunteer with Contact Teleministry from 1972 until 1987. She was a member of the first Girl Scout troop organized in Johnston County, in 1923. In 1983 Mrs. Lee was named a "Distinguished Citizen" by the Smithfield-Selma Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1996 she served as the first Grand Marshal for Cleveland Township's Fourth of July celebration. In 2000 she was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian award bestowed by the State of North Carolina. In 2005 she was honored by the Johnston County Heritage Commission as a "Living Legend of Johnston County." That same year she was named "Tar Heel of the Week" by The News & Observer of Raleigh. Mrs. Lee was preceded in death by a brother, Dr. George A. McLemore of New York City, and a sister, Lucile McLemore Austin of Smithfield, as well as her husband. She is survived by daughters, Mary Nell Lee Ferguson and husband, Jerry of Cleveland Township, Margaret Ann Lee Stubbs and husband, David of Smithfield; son, Denton F. Lee, Jr. and wife, Jane of Cleveland Township; a brother and sister - Dr. Robert A. McLemore of Springfield, Ohio and Eloise McLemore Grady of Smithfield; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. The family will receive friends from 5-8 p.m. Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church on South Third Street in Smithfield. A graveside service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Oakland Presbyterian Church on Cleveland Road, followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian in Smithfield. The family requests that memorial donations be made to either of the following: the Johnston County Heritage Center, P.O. Box 2709, Smithfield, NC, 27577; First Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 1159, Smithfield, NC 27577; the Margaret McLemore Lee Endowment, Johnston Community College Foundation, P.O. Box 2350, Smithfield, NC 27577. File: Obit..Lee, Margaret McLemore..2-12.2007 (Courtesy of Robert McLemore Butler, "The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) on 2/13/2007)
  Person ID	I21835	Strong Family Tree
  Last Modified	13 Apr 2020

  
  

  Father	George Ammie McLemore, M.D.,   b. 12 Nov 1878, Sampson County, North Carolina ,   d. 14 Apr 1961, Smithfield, Johnston County, North Carolina  (Age 82 years)
  Mother	Nellie Emily Johnson,   b. 25 Jun 1881, Johnston County, North Carolina ,   d. 17 Apr 1934, Johnston County, North Carolina  (Age 52 years)
  Married	22 Dec 1908	North Carolina   [1]
  	They were active members of the Presbyterian Church.He was ordained an Elder in 1910.
  Family ID	F7646	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Denton Farmer Lee,   b. 1 Dec 1910,   d. Jul 1965  (Age 54 years)
  Married	2 Feb 1941	Johnston County, North Carolina   [2]
  Last Modified	28 Jul 2009
  Family ID	F7655	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 26 Sep 1910 - Johnston County, North Carolina Married - 2 Feb 1941 - Johnston County, North Carolina Died - 12 Feb 2007 - Johnston County, North Carolina  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos

  McLemore, Margaret Elizabeth ca 2005 Wife of Denton Farmer Lee B. 1910 D. 2007 Johnston County, North Carolina Honored for the "rare store of knowledge concerning economic, political, social and family history she assembled giving thousands of people opportunity to fulfill their search for family roots and appreciation of the heritage of Johnston County." She was for many years the curator of the Heritage Center of Johnston County in Smithfield, North Carolina, and remained Curator Emeritus until her death at age 97.

  
  

• Sources

  [S173] Lee, Margaret McLemore--Family Researcher (Johnston County Heritage Center P.O. Box 2709 Smithfield NC 27577). [S667] RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, (The WorldConnect Project is a set of tools, which allow users to upload, modify, link, and display their family trees as a means to share their genealogy with other researchers. The program used to day has a genealogy of its own. RootsWeb announced the launch of the World Connect Project on November 10, 1999 after staff members and users submitted 5.5 million records during a four-week beta-testing period. The WorldConnect Project continues to grow, and as of January 2004 had more than 312 million records. GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunications. It is a file format developed by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). It provides a flexible and uniform format for exchanging computerized genealogical data, and allows you to share files with other researchers who may not use the same genealogy program.), Holmes, Deb (deb@wemightbekin.net) "My Landgon Family" Ver . 2009-06-22 ; http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm. cgi?db=isomyfamilytree (Reliability: 3).