Martha Ballenger Hendrix Shelton

Martha Ballenger Hendrix Shelton, 89, of Morganton, NC died Saturday, May 3, 2014. Born in Spartanburg County, SC on April 15, 1925, she was the daughter of the late Richard Smiley Ballenger and Lucy Allen Pate Ballenger.She grew up in Duncan, SC and was married in 1942 to Everette Wilson Hendrix. Martha was employed as an administrative assistant to the District 5 superintendent of public schools in Duncan. She was very active in her community and was a member of First United Methodist Church in Duncan. She and her family moved to Morganton in 1969 where she served as an administrative assistant to the executive director of the Western Regional Health Systems Agency. Martha retired in 1987. Everette died in 1997 and in 2001 she married her husband, Charles Wendell Shelton, who survives her. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Morganton and was a member of the Koinonia Sunday School Class. She was very active in the Pilot Club where she served as past president, sweetheart, and many club offices. She was a member of the Morganton Garden Club, Dutch Club, Fleet Reserve, the Friendship Force of Morganton, and served on the board of directors for the Morganton Community House.In addition to her husband, Martha is survived by her children, Jan Hendrix Richardson and her husband, Dr. Jim A. Richardson, of Morganton and Pamela Hendrix Owen Early and her husband, Gary, of Mount Pleasant, SC; grandchildren, Leigh Wilkes and her husband, Timothy Scranton, Jennifer DeLoche Ward and her husband, Steve, and Anna Elizabeth Pate Richardson; great-grandchildren, Owen Covington Wilkes and James Hunter DeLoche; and a sister-in-law, Elizabeth Green Ballenger of Anderson, SC.In addition to her parents and first husband, Martha was preceded in death by a brother, Richard Smiley Ballenger; and a sister, Dorothy Ballenger Crouch.The memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, May 10, 2014 at First Baptist Church with the Dr. Thomas A. Bland, Jr. officiating. The family will receive friends in the Kistler House following the service.In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to First Baptist Church, P.O. Drawer 459, Morganton, NC 28680, to Burke Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc., 1721 Enon Road, Valdese, NC 28690, or to the Pilot Club of Morganton, c/o Karen Whitley, 214 Henrys Glen Drive, Morganton, NC 28655.Sossoman Funeral Home and Crematory Center is assisting the family with the arrangements.