Mrs. Eulala H. Wolfe

Eulala H. Wolfe, who called Mt. Airy home for more than three quarters of a century, died Sunday, Nov. 9, at Homestead Hills retirement community in Winston-Salem. She was 97. She came to Mt. Airy from southwest Virginia before World War II, looking for work in the midst of the Great Depression. She found a steady job, a loving husband, and a fledgling church, which became her mainstay over the years. Eulala Hiatt was born August 29, 1917, the eighth and last child of Robert and Laura Harold Hiatt, who farmed an apple orchard on the Carroll/Patrick County line. She was born in a two-room wood house that stood a few feet from the old Willow Hill Moravian Church, her lifetime association with the Moravians apparently pre-ordained. In a self-written obituary she said she "grew up in a loving and caring home as the baby of the family," and by the accounts of her siblings over the years, it was a role she relished, insisting on being the center of any family activity. She graduated from high school and took a job in Mount Airy. It was while cutting hair in a downtown salon, the Ideal Beauty Shoppe, that she met John B. Wolfe, a young man from Monroe, who had come to Mt. Airy with the era's Civilian Conservation Corps. A whirlwind courtship was born. They were married in the parsonage of Mt. Bethel Moravian Church in 1938. Afterward, the newlyweds borrowed a car and sped to Winston-Salem for a one-night honeymoon at the venerable Robert E. Lee Hotel. Eulala treasured the room receipt. It cost five dollars. After Pearl Harbor, when her husband enlisted in the army, she became a devoted camp follower, tagging along with John's company before he shipped out to Europe. Many was the night when she regaled her children and grandchildren with tales of the military road, stories of hardshipa€"but also of romance. Eulala joined Grace Moravian Church in 1942, which was to be her spiritual home until her death. Church activities filled her active life. She taught Sunday school and vacation bible school, cared for the cemetery, and served spaghetti with the women's fellowship. She was elected to the church's Board of Elders. Outside the church, she donned a pink lady's jacket to volunteer at Northern Hospital, supplied food to the needy at Yokefellow Ministry, and worked long election days as a poll watcher for the Democratic Party. But it was the arrival of two children that defined Eulala Wolfe's life. She helped with their homework, chauffeured them to piano lessons, and herded troops of Cub and Girl Scouts. Their activities became her activities. Their friends became her friends. At her home on Main Street, Eulala was known as an inveterate decorator, wed to a furniture dealer who could get it for her wholesale. She acquired new pieces nonstop, once quipping "every living room in Mt. Airy has one of my used couches." In her memoir, she remembered with affection the many gatherings she hosted at her home Eulala was preceded in death by her parents and her husband; three brothers, Roscoe, Thomas, and Foy; and four sisters, Pearly Hiatt, Grace Hiatt Laughridge, Macie Hiatt Thompson, and Verlie Hiatt Brown. She is survived by two children, a daughter, Pam Wolfe Wannamaker; a son, Randy Wolfe; and a son-in-law, Mike Wannmaker. Survivors also include a granddaughter, Blair Wannamaker Archila; a grandson-in-law, Jorge Archila; and a grandson, John Wannamaker. Eulala also welcomed the arrival last year of a great granddaughter, Audrey Archila. Funeral services will be held Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 2PM at Grace Moravian Church in Mt. Airy, with Eulala's nephew, Rev. Robert Dean Wolfe conducting the service. Visitation will be held in the church immediately following the service. The family sends Eulala to her rest with thanks to the caring staffs of Ridgecrest retirement community in Mt. Airy and Homestead Hills retirement community in Winston-Salem. Memorials may be made in Eulala's name to Grace Moravian Church and Willow Hill Moravian Church.