Hilda Pauline James

Hilda Pauline James, 92, died Tuesday, July 07, 2015, at Gordon Hospice House due to complications from congestive heart failure. Miss James, a longtime Statesville resident and retired educator, was born April 23, 1923, in Fines Creek, Haywood County as the fourth of seven children to the late Norman Crawford James Sr. and late Nellie Bly Green James.                                                                 The centers of her early life in a rural community – home, church and school – shaped the values that would follow her throughout her life and provided an extraordinary influence on generations of nieces and nephews and Iredell County high school students, among others. She was a graduate of Fines Creek High School in 1940, and attended Blanton’s Business College in Asheville. She briefly worked in the office of the Haywood County agricultural extension agent before gathering the funds to attend Meredith College in Raleigh, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business education in 1947. She also earned a master’s degree in education from University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1965.                                                                                                                                            Her first job as a teacher was at Franklinton High School, but she returned to Statesville in 1951, three years after her family had relocated there to open a dairy. She taught at Cool Springs High School until 1965 when it was consolidated with the new North Iredell High School, from which she retired in 1982. During her entire career teaching business courses, she never found a need to send a student to the principal’s office.                                                                          Miss James has been a member of Statesville’s First Baptist Church for more than six decades and frequently taught Sunday school. For 40 years, she was a volunteer at Iredell Memorial Hospital, where she often ran into her former students. She also volunteered with Red Cross. She also was a primary caregiver to both her parents and a paternal aunt, the late Maggie Frances James, during their later years. In addition to her parents and aunt, Miss James was preceded in death by all her siblings, sisters Lucy James Ferguson of Fines Creek, Frances James Stamey of Statesville; and brothers William Wilson James of Statesville, N.C. James Jr. of Statesville, Max Ralston James Sr. of Olin and Ted Lowell James of Salisbury; her niece Regina Ferguson Rogers of Waynesville; her nephew, Jerry Neil Ferguson Sr. of Fines Creek; and her great nephew Christopher Bryan Ferguson of Fines Creek. Miss James is survived by two sisters-in-law, Lois Efird James of Olin and Frances Harbin James of Statesville; 15 other nieces and nephews and their offspring, totaling dozens of nieces and nephews across four generations. The family also wishes to acknowledge Judy Blackwelder for her outstanding service and friendship as Miss James’ caregiver in her final months.                                                                                                            Services celebrating Hilda’s life will be held at 2:00 P.M. Saturday at First Baptist Church, 815 Davie Ave., Statesville, with Dr. Jack Causey officiating. Private  burial services will precede the service at Oakwood Cemetery. The family will receive friends following the service in Adams Hall of the church. Condolences may be sent online to the family to www.nicholsonfunerals.com .  In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, 815 Davie Ave, Statesville, N.C. 28677, Meredith College, 3800 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, N.C. 27607 or to Hospice & Palliative Care Of Iredell County, 2347 Simonton Rd. Statesville, N.C. 28625. Nicholson Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.