Mary Hazel (Farthing) Mast

Mary Hazel Farthing Mast, born December 17, 1927.
Died January 3, 2025 surrounded by loving family and friends
3rd oldest child of Richard Aubyn Farthing and Hazel Dell Glenn Farthing
Raised in Valle Crucis, went to Valle Crucis Elementary School and Cove Creek High School.

Attended Woman’s College of UNC (now UNCG) and graduated Phi Beta Kappa at age 19 with a double major in English and Chemistry and a minor in French. Obtained her Master's in Education from Appalachian State University.
With her impressive credentials, she could have had a myriad of career choices, but she wanted to return to Valle Crucis to live and raise her family.

When she was around 6 years old, she caught diphtheria and could not attend school. Her mother Hazel, who had been a teacher before she married, home-schooled her. When she recovered and was able to attend school, she was so advanced that she skipped a grade. She was over a year younger than anyone
of her classmates. The first day of school, she tried to sharpen her pencil using the wall-mounted crank pencil sharpener. She couldn’t get it to work and was visibly getting upset. Suddenly, a young H.W. Mast appeared by her side and gently said “I’ll sharpen your pencil for you”, and sharpened the pencil with his pocketknife. She looked up at him and knew right then who she was going to marry. They became childhood sweethearts and married young.

She taught school at Valle Crucis Elementary for decades and served as a teacher’s aide there for many years after she retired. She taught 3 generations of many families of the communities surrounding Valle Crucis. Early on she had a home movie camera and took home movies of each of her classes on the last day of the school year as the kids paraded on the school playground. Many of her 6 th grade students got the unique treat of watching their 6 th grade aged parents frolicking on the same playground.

In her later teaching years, she was a reading teacher and tutor and kept garden snakes and other creatures in cages in her classroom. She helped the kids in her reading classes gain self-confidence and esteem when they confidently showed their classmates how to gently handle the harmless snakes.

She taught piano lessons to many pupils in Valle Crucis and was a church pianist for 60 years. She taught herself how to play the electric bass guitar because she loved the bass line in Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally”. She played bass in several family combos and choirs.

She received many awards and distinctions, two of them being very special to her. The library at Valle Crucis Elementary School (unusable now because of Hurricane Helene) was named after her in her honor. In 2018 she was inducted into the Rhododendron Society, an organization that recognizes graduates of Appalachian State whose services in the field of education reflected great credit on
themselves, their chosen occupation, and the University.

She was a thrill seeker. She went sleigh-riding alongside all her children, then grandchildren, went up in a hot air balloon and went skydiving well into her 80’s. She rode the mules down the Grand Canyon trail as well as rafted the white water there. She loved travelling and took trips all over the world with her
many fellow retired teacher friends.

She and H.W. raised 4 lucky children in the same beautiful valley where both she and H.W. were raised.

She wrote journals during each child’s early childhood chronicling the things they said, the milestones they reached and the many day-to-day humorous things that happen to us all and are usually forgotten without documentation. She gave each child a copy of the complete journal along with a paper she had written for an assignment in a Master’s college psychology class describing her philosophy of child rearing. She bound each journal herself with hard cardboard and wallpaper samples. They are among the most precious possessions of Richard, Susan, Jeanne, and Allen.

In addition to her parents, Mary Hazel was preceded in death by brothers Ray Farthing and Glenn Farthing, sister Katy Greene, and her devoted husband H.W Mast, Jr. and Son-in-Law Lewis Anderson (Andy) Williams, Jr.

She is survived by all four children, Richard Mast (Kay), Susan Mast (Sammy Sambroia), Jeanne Winkler (Scott), and Allen Mast (Suzanne); grandchildren Toni Ferguson, Stephen Williams, and Mary Katherine Osorio; step grandchildren David Winkler, Allison Winkler, and Ryan Winkler; great grandchildren Hazel
Ferguson and Aaliyah Williams; and many treasured nieces and nephews. Deepest thanks to special friends Ginny Whitaker, Laurel Gordon, and Kasey Angell.
Thanks for the wonderful care from Amorem Hospice, Trellis Hospice, and Life Care Center and all the wonderful caregivers.
Memorials may be made to Valle Crucis Park PO Box 581 Valle Crucis, NC 28691.
A memorial service will be held in the new Valle Crucis Elementary School when it opens.

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