Faye Willingham

Faye Willingham poses for a portrait with 1st Sgt.
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Willingham recently retired from the district Highway Patrol office.
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Willingham often answers her home phone the same way, according to first sergeant Robert West.
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Willingham retired last week from the Craven and Pamlico highway patrol district office.She said she is going to miss the work -- the phone calls, the filing, concise record keeping, slow and outdated computers, the cursing and rude public, and lovingly, she says, "her troopers."

Her retirement means more time with her three grandchildren, her church, her Lions Club, the N.C. State Employees Association and the elderly.
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"Joe is here today because God touched him," Willingham said.
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Willingham learned to reach out to others as she and her two siblings grew up in Brevard in western North Carolina.

"Growing up in a small rural area, everyone took care of their family and neighbors," she said."The church was the focus of community activities."

With that philosophy, she headed to eastern North Carolina with her husband, Obie Willingham, whom she married in 1964.

He worked with the N.C. Forestry Division and told his wife in 1971 that the family would be in Craven County for only two years.

She has been here since.

She has worked for the Craven-Pamlico Soil and Water Conservation District and the N.C. State Probation and Parole Division before her stint with the highway patrol.
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Willingham said the hardest part of the job was stress, having to deal with questions from residents grieving the loss of a relative in a crash and complaints from some about tickets or insurance problems.

To relax, Willingham turned to First Baptist Church of New Bern, where she sings in the choir, serves as a deacon and helps in the nursery.

She was recently elected president of the Twin Rivers Lions Club.

"The Lion's Club motto is 'we serve,'" Willingham said.