CityView Magazine

12 | Winter • 2009 Publisher's Note N ot many people are true natives of Fayetteville; fewer still who have been here nearly 100 years. My wife's grandmother, Mary Butler Yarborough, was that rare person. She died October 30 at 99 years old, just a few months short of 100. Her family and close friends referred to her as Kitty or Miss Kitty. She was quite a grand lady. Long life was in her genes; her mother lived to be 98. She lived her entire life in Cumberland County. She grew up in Gray's Creek and worked alongside her husband, Wilson Yarborough, in Fayetteville for 61 years. They were married at the beginning of the Great Depression and learned early on the value of saving money. I used to sit with her and ask all sort of questions about their history in Fayetteville. It was quite amazing. She told me they used to own a gas station on Raeford Road and would work so late that they would sleep on a cot in the back. They became the first Packard Automobile dealer in Fayetteville in 1938. Kitty was ahead of the times for working women. She was working day and night with her husband in the 1930's through the 1950's. They became very successful because they worked hard and smart. They started Yarborough Motor Company and had a real estate development company that built many homes in Fayetteville in the early 1940's. REMEMBERING MISS KITTY Marshall Waren, Publisher Kitty saw all the many changes take place in Fayetteville over a long lifetime. In 1940, they built the house we live in and we bought it from them in 1986. So only two families have lived in our home – and both were Yarboroughs. I was always fascinated with her excellent memory, even in her later years. She loved a good joke and could remember many of them. She loved to travel and she did a lot of that over the years. Imagine the memories she collected over 99 years! Most people want to live to be 70; she got another 29 years and was in good health until the past few years. Kitty was still independent all the way till the end. God blessed her with a large family. She lived long enough to see 11 grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren (my grandchildren). My son Bob, who died in 2006, was very close to Kitty. He had given her a red heart-shaped pillow from New York that she kept close to her always. She was buried in the same cemetery as Bob with that pillow by her side on Monday, November 2nd. Her family will definitely miss the grand matriarch of the Yarborough clan. CV

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