September 30, 1896 – April 24, 1978
by Ellen C. Weig, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wilmington, NC
Photo of St. Matthew’s churchyard courtesy of Ellen Weig.
Miss Annie, as she was fondly known, was a beloved member of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and the Hillsborough community. In 1977, a “News of Orange Sketch” highlighted her life. She graduated in 1916 from St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, an Episcopal preparatory and junior college for young ladies, where she was described as involved “in everything” by her cousin, Rebecca Wall. She returned home to Hillsborough and spent her life teaching first grade. Miss Annie was described by a friend as “all sweetness, but she didn’t waste time in idle chatter. She knew rich and poor and looked after the lot of the underprivileged.” Miss Wall also said of her, “She was particularly bright, and she was very religious and a good poet, but I think she always wanted to teach.”
Highly significant to St. Matthew’s were Miss Annie’s efforts to insure the religious education of children. She not only taught Sunday School, but also made sure children and adults were able to get to church. For many years she drove to St. Mary’s Chapel in Orange County and taught there on Sunday afternoons. When services at St. Mary’s were discontinued, she drove out into the county and brought “the car-less” to church. Eventually, St. Matthew’s vestry authorized the spending of money for a new station wagon dubbed the “Gospel Car”. With it Miss Annie was able to continue bringing children to church.
Parish stories recall her sharing Sunday dinners with friends. Miss Sue Hayes, the organist at St. Matthew’s, would issue an invitation, “I’m having leftovers for lunch”, meaning people, not food. Miss Annie was often a participant at the meals. She was also known to place markers on unmarked family gravesites.
Miss Annie never married. Her mother had died at the time of her birth, and she was raised by her father and her three aunts. One of her aunts was Miss Rebecca Cameron, who most likely had great influence on her early religious upbringing. Miss Rebecca often commented in her column in Messengers of Hope and The Carolina Churchman about the “little maid” attending St. Mary’s school. Like her Aunt, Miss Annie was deeply interested in Hillsborough history. She wrote “Hillsborough and the Regulators” (1864) and “A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919”, a manuscript which describes local efforts during World War I, and the “Blue Death” influenza epidemic of 1918. Miss Annie was Miss Rebecca’s caretaker in her later years. One story has it that when Miss Annie attended a summer program for teachers at the University of North Carolina, Miss Rebecca would travel to Chapel Hill with her and remain in the car until classes were over. Those who knew Miss Annie always spoke of her fondly and with a reverence for her gifts to their lives. She is buried in the St. Matthew’s Churchyard amid her family and in sight of Cameron Park Elementary School where she taught for so many years.
Sources:
Stagg, Elisabeth. “A News of Orange Sketch: Annie Sutton Cameron”. The News of Orange County, Hillsborough, NC. Thursday, April 28, 1977.
The News of Orange County. Annie Sutton Cameron, obituary. Page 1.
Dula, Lucile Noell. Annie Sutton Cameron, written for the St. Matthew’s Cookbook, 1982.
Anne Sutton Rowe. http://www.sallysfamilyplace.com/Rayner/ARMISTEAD.htm genealogy for William Thomas Sutton and Annie Payton Outlaw.
Webb, Isabelle. Oral history and Hillsborough stories collected by Ellen Weig.