JACKIE ROUSE BOYKIN - OBITUARY

WILLIAMSTON - Jacqueline Rouse Boykin, 77, died Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 at home. A memorial service will be held at Church of the Advent, 124W. Church St. in Williamston on Sunday at 2 p.m. officiated by the Father Rob Spainhour. The family will receive friends following the service in the Parish House. Interment will take place at a later time at Greenleaf Memorial Park in New Bern.

Jackie, who was born Dec. 12, 1935, in Dover, was the daughter of the late Graham and Ella Rae Hawkins Rouse of Havelock. She graduated from New Bern High School, attended East Carolina College, and graduated from Pembroke State College and North Carolina State University.

Married to the Rev. Warner R. Heston Jr., they served Methodist churches in Hatboro and Philadelphia, and Riegelwood, Roland, and Hurdles Mill. She was a social studies teacher at Person and Rocky Mount Senior High Schools and served as a consultant at the Northeast Regional Education Center in Williamston for the Department of Public Instruction beginning in 1980.

Following her retirement she worked for the North Carolina Council on Economic Education, the First Flight Centennial Commission, and taught history at Martin Community College. She was married to John T. Boykin Jr. from 1990 until his death in 2010. He was Williamston's town manager.

Jackie was a charter member and past president of the Association of Historians in North Carolina. She was an active member and served on the boards of the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies and the North Carolina Geographic Alliance. She was appointed to the North Carolina Humanities Council from 1985 - 1989. She was a charter member of the Grimes-Mayo chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Heritage Genealogy Society of Lenoir, Jones, and Greene counties. She was a member of the Pamlico River Quilters Guild and Martin County Quilters. She participated in the Writing Family Stories class at Pitt Community College for three years and published a memoir, "For Kindred Love" in 2012.

Her son, Warner R. Heston III; daughter, Cynthia H. Rice; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren, survive her. Three stepdaughters, their six children, four grandchildren, and devoted family friend, Ruby Haddock also survive.

The family requests that memorials be made to Church of the Advent, P.O. Box 463, Williamston, NC 27892 or Martin Memorial Library, 210 North Smithwick St., Williamston, NC 27892.
Service handled by Biggs Funeral Home, Williamston.

Published in The Daily Reflector on Oct. 25, 2013