Mrs. Mary Rankin MacKethan Hayslip

Mary Rankin MacKethan Hayslip, 93, of Fayetteville, died 21 September 2016.

A private family service will be held at Cross Creek Cemetery at 10:00 am followed by a memorial service in the Sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church on Monday, 26 September 2016 at 11:00 am with Dr. Michael Garrett officiating. The family will receive friends following the service in the Church Parlor.

Mary Rankin was born in Fayetteville to Elisabeth Rankin and Hector McAlister McKethan on 7 March 1923. She attended the Fayetteville schools and graduated valedictorian from Alexander Graham High School before attending Woman’s College in Greensboro. She then graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where she was a member of Chi Omega Sorority, worked on the “Yackity Yak”, was a member of the student council, and earned her degree in journalism. Mary Rankin also met her future husband, United States Naval Air Cadet, Leland Stanford Hayslip, Jr. They married 17 March 1945 in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Mrs. Hayslip’s love of  travel began with her wedding trip to Mexico.  After the war they moved to Springfield, Pennsylvania where she raised two children, a daughter, Cecelia, and son, Leland.  An active Presbyterian while in Pennsylvania, she later became an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Moorestown, NJ when her husband’s work required the family to relocate.

Her trips extended to five continents, four Canadian provinces and all fifty states.

After Stan retired he brought Mary Rankin home to Fayetteville where she reconnected with family and friends. Filling her time between trips she was an active and enthusiastic volunteer/member of numerous charitable and social organizations. While the Colonial Dames of NC, Fayetteville Garden Club, Study Club, and the Fayetteville and North Carolina Symphonies were among her favorites, Fayetteville’s Botanical Garden and the First Presbyterian Church held a special place in her heart.

A master gardener, Mary Rankin, was an early advocate and supporter of the Botanical Garden and served on its Board of Directors for several years. She even chose it as the locale for her 90th birthday celebration.

Growing up sitting in the “MacKethan pew” at First Presbyterian it took little urging to have her agree to become the Church Historian and compile a history of the church from its inception in 1800  to 2009. After ten years of cutting and pasting her book, Fling Wide the Gates, a 200 year history of the Church and early Fayetteville, was published in 2009.

Mary Rankin is survived by her daughter, Cecelia Dornan Hayslip (Fayetteville, NC), and son, Leland Stanford Hayslip, III and his wife Dorothy (Medford, NJ), 2 grand-daughters, Kristen Campbell Joye and her husband, Tim (Leland, NC), and Courtney Lee Sistrunk (Fayetteville, NC), and grand-son, Dr. Russell Robertson Bear and his wife, Emily (Severna Park, MD) and 3 great-grand-children, several nieces, nephews and cousins.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to Cape Fear Botanical Garden in her memory.

Services are entrusted to Sullivan's Highland Funeral Service, and Crematory, Inc., of Fayetteville, NC.