First Presbyterian Church
Kernersville • NC

Eileen MacHardy - 2017

3 to 4 Years Old

16 Years Old

Age 17-Hanging Rock State Park

Basketball Team

High School Graduation

Norma Eileen Newsome's Woman's College U.N.C. I.D. Greensboro, NC

Celebrating Eileen MacHardy

April 1, 1933 -- January 16, 2021

Today we celebrate an April Fool’s baby, who was born at dawn in her home on Patterson Avenue in Winston-Salem.  She had her first four years of formal education in Walnut Cove, the next four years she attended schools in Danbury, and her high school years were in Walnut Cove.  She attended The Women’s  College of the University of North Carolina for three years majoring in Home Economics with an emphasis on Dietetics.  This lady has been published in the Woman’s Wear Daily.  She began to show an interest in sewing at the age of nine.  Today we celebrate our fashion lady of the church, Eileen MacHardy.

On April 1, at dawn, Eileen was born at home on Patterson Avenue.  Eileen’s parents, India Cloe Manual and Trudrich Malcolm Newsome, were young when they got married.  She was 19 and he was 18, and they had a son, Donald, age one when Eileen came along.  When Eileen was a few weeks old her parents got a divorce.  Eileen, her mother and her older brother moved in with her mother’s parents.  They lived there for five years.  When Donald turned four he went to live with his father because it was too hard for Eileen’s mother to support the family.  Donald would come back to visit at Christmas, spring break and part of the summer with his mother and little sister.  In their later years, Donald and Eileen became close.  She calls him every day now.

Eileen’s grandfather was a lawyer.  He never went to law school, but he passed the Bar Exam. He read law and learned law with the help of Judge Sharp from Winston-Salem.  He didn’t like being a lawyer because too many guilty people got off free.  He left the law practice and went to work repairing watches and clocks.  When Eileen was five, they moved into one of grandfather’s houses.  Her mother went to work in a factory in Martinsville, Virginia, making parachutes for WWII.  She had to quit her job there because she found out she was allergic to nylon. Soon she got a job working for the registry of deeds at the court house.  While working there, she met Walter G. Petree, who was a lawyer.  In 1939, her mother married him, and they bought a beautiful northern colonial home in Danbury, North Carolina.

Eileen had her first four years of formal education in Walnut Cove, and the next four years she attended schools in Danbury, and her high school years were in Walnut Cove.  She attended The Women’s College of the University of North Carolina for three years majoring in Home Economics.  Eileen’s grandfather had opened a saving account for her when she was young and had taught her the importance of saving money.  When it was time for college, she had saved up enough money for the first year.

Over the years, she had worked at the Hanging Rock State Park bathhouse, stuffed and addressed envelopes for AAA, and got a job at The Whalehead Club.  The Whalehead Club was a historic hunting club located in Corolla, Currituck County, North Carolina.  The clubhouse was built as a private hunting retreat on the grounds of the Lighthouse Club between 1922 and 1925.  Today the Whalehead Club is a Historical landmark and museum.  Her jobs there were to get things ready and in order for the guests who were arriving and serving meals in the dining room.  Some of her duties were working in the kitchen.  She lived on the grounds while working there.

One summer day, while she was working at The Whalehead Club, she received a letter in the mail from Earl Trounson MacHardy, a gentleman from New York, who had visited The Whalehead Club.  He worked in the sugar industry buying sugar from all over the world.  They began to correspond with each other.  That fall, when Eileen had gone back to college, he came to visit her and she took him home to introduce him to her mother and step-father.  Later, he flew Eileen and her mother to New York for a visit and to meet his two children.  While Eileen was still attending the Women’s College in Greensboro, he came to visit her again.  They enjoyed a day at Hanging Rock State Park.  While there he proposed to her and she said yes.

In 1954, she married Earl Trounson MacHardy who was a widower with two children, Allen age 14 and Scotty age two.  The wedding was in Danbury, North Carolina, and the girls that Eileen worked with at The Whalehead Club were her bridesmaids.  In 1955 Mac and Eileen went to Cuba to visit people in the sugar business to buy sugar.  Mac worked for a sugar company, Corn Products, manufacturing sugar into syrup.  He and, many times, Eileen traveled all over the world buying sugar.  He would buy sugar by the shiploads to be refined. In 1960, they bought a 10½ room home in Hastings on the Hudson, New York.  They lived there until he retired in 1972.

On January 10, 1958, New York was in the middle of a blizzard.  Eileen was pregnant and going into labor.  Even though Mac was very sick, he got up to put chains on the tires, and then drove her to the hospital.  He dropped her off and drove back home and went back to bed.  Sixteen hours later Earl Trounson MacHardy, Jr. was born.

In 1963, Eileen enrolled in the French Fashion Academy.  She taught her friends how to tailor their clothes.  Eileen had shown an interest in sewing at the age of nine and made her own clothing.  She loved Vogue patterns and even taught herself how to make her own patterns.  Eileen had always been interested in fashion and design and made all the costumes for the Off Broadway play “Jonah.”  She and three of her friends, at the academy, saved their money for two shopping trips.  The first place they went was London, England, and the second trip was to Marbella, Spain (Mac went along on this trip).  These girls were really into shopping.  Eileen has been published in the Woman’s Wear Daily, a fashion magazine.

In the late ‘60s, Eileen and Mac traveled to Switzerland, Rome, Paris, and London.  On a trip to Lake Okeechobee for business, they were treated like royalty — a limo was there to pick them up.  Other business destinations were Hong Kong, The Philippines, Japan, and Hawaii.

In 1970, Eileen and Mac traveled to Greece and Ephesus, Turkey.  They visited the Island of Rhodos (Hellos) and did site seeing tours.  In 1972, Mac retired from Corn Products.  He became president of New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange where he worked for three years.  In 1977, they traveled to Spain, Scotland and London.  This was their first real vacation.

In February 1976, Eileen and Mac moved to Kernersville, North Carolina and stayed with Eileen’s mother.  Soon they moved to a small rental home in Arbor Acres.  They later moved to Pine Knolls.  Mac died at the age of 87 of emphysema and pneumonia.

Eileen worked 17 years in retail at Thalhimers and Hecks, in Thruway Shopping Center, and also at the Greensboro Store, as a sales associate.  She worked in dresses, coats, suits, and wedding attire.

Today Eileen enjoys “Hanging Out”.  She likes to play bridge and gin rummy.  She likes to go visit others and enjoys entertaining.  If you like to play Trivial Pursuit, give her a call. She looks forward to her weekly visits from her son in Durham.  He looks forward to his visits with his mother because she prepares a dessert for him to take home to his family.  Lastly, she loves to go shopping.

When Eileen was eleven, she joined the Presbyterian Church in Danbury.  When she moved to New York she was a member of the South Presbyterian  Church where she took care of the nursery for several years.  Every year for the Christmas Pageant she made all the costumes.  During Public School Relief time, she taught Bible Study to the children.  On December 2, 1979, she joined First Presbyterian Church in Kernersville, North Carolina.  She helped with the egg ministry for two years working as an egg shaper.

 

EILEEN IS MOST PROUD OF:

Her son, Earl Trounson MacHardy, Jr., and her grandchildren.

EILEEN’S WORDS OF WISDOM:

Be patient, work hard, and get a good education.

Sophomore Year (Eileen is in the front row, second from the left)	Sophomore or Junior Year of College	Eileen and Co-workers at The Whalehead Club Who Were Also her Bridesmaids
Eileen, her son and Mother	Eileen in Greece 1970 Rhodos (Hellas)	Eileen - 1975