Nancy Howard Sitterson died peacefully at the age of 91 on Tuesday, November 29, 2010 at Carol Woods Retirement Community. She is survived by four sisters and brothers, three children (Joe Sitterson and Lisa Nanney of Asheville, N.C., Mary and Eric Calhoun of Greensboro, N.C., and Curtis Sitterson of Key Biscayne, Fla.), nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren – every one of whom she knew and loved, and they her. Her last words, to a group of her grandchildren visiting her on Thanksgiving, were, “I love you all†– which can serve as her leave-taking from all her family and friends over the years.
In many of those years, Nancy was one of the talented and hardworking women at times unnoticed next to their equally talented and hardworking husbands who shaped the University of North Carolina in much of the 20th century – the husband in her case being Lyle Sitterson, professor of history and then chancellor, whom she married in 1944. Like her husband, she grew up in Kinston, N.C., and like him completed graduate work at UNC, in her case at the School of Social Work. For most of their 50 years of marriage, they lived on Hillcrest Circle; soon after his death in 1995, she moved to Carol Woods. She was a member of the first public library board, organizer for Meals on Wheels, active member of Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church and co-founder of the Carol Woods rose garden.
Services will be at 3 p.m. Friday, December 3 at the Chapel of the Cross on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, followed by a reception there. Donations may be sent to any one of the following, the nature and number of which bear witness to Nancy’s generous spirit: Planned Parenthood–Chapel Hill, Child Care Network–Pittsboro, Thompson Children’s Home–Charlotte, Episcopal Relief & Development NetsforLife–Chapel of the Cross, Meals on Wheels–Chapel Hill or People of Faith Against the Death Penalty–North Carolina.