Sara Frances Martin Thompson

THOMPSON, Sara Frances Martin, age 98, formerly of Winston-Salem, N.C., died in Farmville, Virginia, on October 9, 2008. Mrs. Thompson attended Salem College in North Carolina, and she graduated from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va. in 1933. Prior to her graduation she had been in home missionary work in the mountains of western North Carolina. In 1934 she married the Rev. Earl F. Thompson, and she supported his North Carolina pastorates for the next 25 years in Rutherfordton, Lake Waccamaw, Statesville, and Spencer. She also taught Bible in the public schools of Statesville and at Mitchell College in that community. Upon her husband's death, she became the director of Christian education at the Reynolds Presbyterian Church of Winston-Salem, where she also directed the Presbyterian ministry to students at Wake Forest University and the Bowman Grey School of Medicine. Later she was on the Christian Education staff of the Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina, providing assistance to churches which were forming pre-school centers and weekday kindergarten programs. She retired in 1976 and lived in Winston-Salem for over 20 years, where she was a member of the Highland Presbyterian Church, serving as an elder and as a Sunday School teacher. In 1999 she moved to Farmville, Va., where she joined her son's church in Hampden-Sydney, serving on several church committees there, giving volunteer service to the Meals on Wheels community ministry. She is survived by a Farmville son, the Rev. Dr. William E. Thompson, the retired Presbyterian minister and chaplain of Hampden-Sydney and his wife, Sally; two grandsons, William E. Thompson Jr. of Stafford, Va., and Dr. John M. Thompson of Williamsburg, Va.; three great-granddaughters; three stepgrandchildren of Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C., Elizabeth Cooke Gilmour, Virginia Cooke Boyd, and Ed Cooke; and two stepgreat-grandchildren. She is also survived by five nieces and five nephews. A memorial service will be held later at College Church at Hampden-Sydney, Virginia. Graveside rites will be held at the Oakwood Cemetery in Statesville, N.C. Memorial contributions may be made to the College Presbyterian Church, Box 13, Hampden-Sydney, Virginia 23943. Doyne-Burger-Davis Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.