Margaret McCurry Shuford

Margaret McCurry Shuford died peacefully at her home on June 13, 2024. She was 98 years old.

Born on May 8, 1926 in the Flat Creek community near Weaverville, North Carolina, Margaret was the last of seven children born to her parents, Troy and Ethel McCurry. Margaret was one of that Greatest Generation raised during the Great Depression, in a rural mountain household full of love, laughter and music.

When she was 23 years old she and B.E. “Gene” Shuford joined their lives in marriage. They spent their honeymoon traveling north to Washington, D.C. where Gene attended art school and Margaret would get a job in the post-World War II Pentagon. Eight years later, they moved to Winston-Salem, where they made a home, raised three children, and wrote a love story with their lives. She and Gene were married for 74 wonderful years.

Although Margaret worked outside the home (at the Pentagon, and various schools in Winston-Salem), her greatest joy was in her family: her marriage to Gene; her children David, Phillip and Genna; her extended family through son-in-law Nelson and daughter-in-law Elsy; and her four grandchildren, Lucas, Abby, Andrea and Andrew.

She loved her husband Gene with a love that was quiet yet intense. Like the excellent mother she was, she taught her children and her grandchildren about the important things of life: God, family, and doing for others.

Margaret loved her family with a servant’s heart and worked tirelessly to make her home a happy one. She loved looking nice but wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty in the vegetable garden. She loved hikes in the western North Carolina mountains. She loved watching the birds at her home and on her travels. She loved music, playing the piano even into her 90’s, and singing in the choir at Southside Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.

And she loved the Bible. She was an active member of the senior adult Sunday School class at Calvary Baptist Church in the same city.

In retirement, Margaret and her husband worked with the MAAP organization (now Volunteer Mobile Missionaries.) They worked in service projects at churches, youth camps, and in disaster recovery at various locations around the country.

In her later years, Margaret struggled with Parkinson’s disease. As the terrible sickness claimed more and more of her abilities, she never lost her drive to keep going, even when her going was tough. In those years, her home health aide and dear friend Laura Carroll helped her immensely. The family expresses their deep appreciation to Laura.

As her health declined, Margaret listened to the Bible being read to her every night at bedtime. It was her favorite time of day. Psalm 1 was one of her favorites:

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, William Troy McCurry and Ethel McBee McCurry, both of Weaverville; and siblings, Ray McCurry, Velma McCurry, Vera McCurry Rector, Ernestine Foster Mandeville, Carol McCurry and A.C. McCurry.

She is survived by her husband, Gene Shuford, retired from AT&T; her children, David Shuford of Winston-Salem, Dr. Phillip Shuford (Elsy) of Ozark, Missouri, and Genna Shuford Johnson (Nelson) of Greensboro, Georgia; and four grandchildren, 1st Lt. Lucas Johnson, Abigail Johnson, Andrea Shuford, and Andrew Shuford; and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to Trellis Supportive Care, (336) 768-3972, www.trellissupport.org.

A funeral service will be held at 2 PM, Monday, June 17, 2024, at Hayworth-Miller Funeral Home, Silas Creek Chapel with Brother James Joseph officiating. Burial will be in Weaverville at a later time. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service.