Mary Haynsworth Mathews

Short Biography

Birth: 1916Greenville CountySouth Carolina, USADeath: May 6, 2011GreenvilleGreenville CountySouth Carolina, USAMary Haynsworth Mathews, 94, a long-time resident of Caesar's Head, South Carolina, with many ties to the Brevard community, died on Friday, May 6, 2011, in Greenville, South Carolina, after a brief illiness.A native of Greenville, with a life-long interest in the performing arts, she majored in drama at UNC Chapel Hill. After graduating in 1937, she won a scholarship to the renowned Chekhov Theater Studio in England. When World War II begun in Europe, the Chekhov Company moved to the United States, and she appeared in several Broadway productions with them. She then joined the American Red Cross and served in England, France and Germany during and after the war.In 1951 she married actor George Matthews and lived in Hollywood and New York until retirement in 1974, when they moved to Ceasar's Head. After her husband's death in November 7, 1984, she continued to live in her mountaintop home. One of her special community interests was to collect bread from a Greenville bakery and deliver it weekly to Sharing House of Brevard, North Carolina.In addition to theater, she was a life-long dancer and studied with the Martha Graham Group in New York. She taught dance in Greenville and for 20 years in a weekly series held at the Brevard-Davidson River Church in Brevard, North Carolina.In 1997 she was featured in "Women Recall the War Years", a book edited and published by Brevard author, the late George L. McDemott.In 2006, she left the mountains to spend her last years with a niece, Mary de Monterey, in Greenville, South Carolina.A graveside service was held on Monday, May 9, 2011 at Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery.