WILMINGTON — Mary Mackie Triplett passed away in Wilmington, North Carolina on January 16, 2025 at the age of 91. Mary was born July 19, 1933 in Gastonia, North Carolina to John Bernard Mackie and Ida Jackson Mackie.
Mary grew up rurally in Crowders Mountain, North Carolina, where her father owned a grocery store. They later moved to the family home in Granite Falls, where Mary graduated high school. She moved to Washington, D.C. to live with her aunts and go to college, and there she met Gene Triplett. They married and were together for 68 years, raising four children.
Along the way, Mary taught middle school English in public schools in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. The family lived in the Washington, D.C. area until Gene retired in 1980 and they came home to North Carolina, moving to Hickory. In 1993, Mary and Gene moved to Wilmington to be near the ocean. In her last decades of life, Mary enjoyed nothing more than being surrounded by family during the annual beach trip, sharing meals at long tables and sharing shade under the beach umbrella, sitting with her feet in the ocean, watching football with her grandsons, and playing Uno and Catch Phrase late into the night. (She was often the last one to go to bed.)
Mary graduated from Marjorie Webster College in Washington, D.C. and Lenoir Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina. She served on the Catawba Valley Special Olympics Board in Hickory, a powerful experience that she spoke of often. Mary was also a member of the Hickory Woman’s Club and was proud to be selected Hickory Woman of the Year and District Three Clubwoman of the Year in 1990. Mary was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington and was active in her circle.
Mary loved being around people: her family and so many friends. She was a gracious host and loved to welcome visitors with homemade macaroni and cheese, lasagna, and ice tea. She loved to go out to lunch with her birthday group and her heart transplant gals. She loved to be beautifully dressed to dance at balls and cotillions, dragging Gene T along if she could. She loved to travel with Gene, her sister, niece, daughters, and grandsons, roaming from Montana to the Caribbean, Florida to New England.
Mary was stubbornly happy and positive. She lived her life sharing her happiness and she lived life her way to the end.
In addition to her parents, Mary was preceded in death by her brother, John Henry Mackie, her husband, Gene T. Triplett, and her grandson, Benjamin A. Bullington. She is survived by her children, Debra Bullington of Helena, Montana, Stephen Triplett of Mills River, North Carolina, Caroline McClintock of Clayton, North Carolina, and Cindy Triplett of Leland, North Carolina. She is also survived by four grandsons, Samuel (Lorinda) Bullington of Missoula, Montana, Joseph Bullington of New Orleans and White Sulphur Springs, Montana, Jackson McClintock of Clayton, North Carolina and Riley (Maya) McClintock of Wilmington, her sister Betty Adamson, and a special niece Daphne James, both of Rockledge, Florida.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Duke Transplant Development Fund at 330 Trent Drive, Hanes House DUMC, Box 102347, Durham, NC 27710; the Autism Society of North Carolina; or to The Pastor’s Fund at First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington.
Her service will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, January 27 in the chapel of the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. The family invites all who wish to attend. A reception will follow with location to be announced.
