Martha Rose Miller McKnight died on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015.

She was born on Jan.24, 1929, in Statesville, to Florence Throneburg and Joseph Vernon Miller. She grew up in Davie County in the Pino community. She was baptized at age 7 at Wesley Chapel Methodist Church. In 1946, she was chosen as the Most Representative Grange Girl in North Carolina, and was a seventh-degree member in the Grange. In 1954, she was baptized by immersion at Yadkinville First Baptist Church, and was an active member there for more than 50 years. She taught in the junior, youth, and adult departments, worked on committees, and enjoyed playing in the handbell choir. She graduated from Farmington High School; attended the same college where her mother had graduated from in 1925, WCUNC (now UNCG), graduating in 1950. She taught in the Yadkin County school system for 31 years, serving at Yadkinville High School, Boonville High School, and Forbush High School. She was chair of the science department for 20 years at Forbush, and she was chosen as teacher of the year there in 1982. She was a charter member of the Gamma Nu chapter of the Alpha Delta Kappa Education Sorority. She loved her family, her church, and her students. She possessed a zest for life, with interests in people, music, movies, flowers, and reading. Her surviving husband, Felix, was the love of her life for over 65 years. She also had a special love for her grandsons, Sep and Taylor. To them, she was “Gammie.”

Also surviving: her son, Robert Nicholas McKnight, and his wife the Rev. Judith Steinman of Lawrenceville, Ga.; her daughter, Sarah Felicia McKnight Briscoe and her husband Philip Briscoe VI, CAPT USN (RET), of Virginia Beach, Va.; her grandsons, Philip (Sep) Briscoe VII and his wife Katie Leigh Briscoe, of Virginia Beach, and Robert Taylor Briscoe and his wife Olivia Rose Briscoe of Woodbridge, Va.; a brother, Dr. Bayne Miller,and his wife Inez of Mocksville; and sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, a special uncle and aunt, and treasured cousins.

The burial ceremony will be at Yadkin Memorial Gardens on Shacktown Road at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, with the memorial service to follow at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church Yadkinville. The Revs. Dallas Prestwood and Ramona Prestwood will be officiating. There will be a luncheon reception afterwards in the fellowship hall.

Condolences: www.gentryfuneralservice.com.