March 6, 1928 ~ February 7, 2025 (age 96)
Kathleen Melba Pate Wyche, 96, died February 7, 2025, in Holly Springs, Wake County, after a long illness.
A North Carolina native born March 6, 1928, she was the eldest child of the late Walter Leo Pate and Kathleen Dew Pate. A resident of Hallsboro and later Whiteville in Columbus County, she graduated from Hallsboro High School in 1945. She matriculated at Mars Hill College and earned a BA degree cum laude from Wake Forest College in 1949. She held a master’s degree in education from the University of South Carolina.
Melba’s passion was education. She was a certified teacher of high school English who taught in the public schools of Union County and then of Columbus County, briefly at Delco and Nakina and longer at Hallsboro. She also served for a time as Nakina High School librarian. Subsequently she taught English at Whiteville High School until her retirement. Melba was named Columbus County Teacher of the Year in 1979 and Whiteville City Schools Teacher of the Year in 1983. She received a North Carolina Business Committee for Education award as outstanding language arts teacher in 1986.
Melba was a member of several professional organizations and served as president of the North Carolina English Teachers Association and the Gamma Zeta chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa honorary teachers’ sorority. She was a judge for the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing, and for the A. R. Ammons Student Poetry Contest, which she helped establish. She sat on Wake Forest University’s Poteat Scholarship committee and Governor James B. Hunt Young Citizens Award committee.
A lifelong member of Hallsboro Baptist Church, Melba served as a deacon, taught adult Sunday school, and was active in the Woman’s Missionary Union and the Columbus Baptist Association. She served on the Baptist State Convention General Board and the convention’s Council on Higher Learning. She was a Columbus County Literacy Council adult tutor, a member of the Lake Waccamaw Depot Museum board, and a past president of the Whiteville Garden Club, as well as an active member of the Lake Waccamaw Book Club and other local organizations.
Melba was predeceased by her husband of 68 years, Ray Byron Wyche; a son, Robert Wyche; and her brother, Walter L. Pate Jr. She is survived by daughter Kathleen Wyche and husband Joe Mobley; son Joseph Wyche and wife Yvonne; grandson Byron Wyche and wife Madison; grandson David Wyche; a great-grandchild; and her sister, Jane Pate Jurney.
A memorial service will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at 1:30 pm at Hallsboro Baptist Church. The family will greet friends afterward in the church’s Keyser Fellowship Hall.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Transitions Lifecare, 250 Hospice Circle, Raleigh NC 27607 or online at transitionslifecare.org; or to the Southeastern Community College Foundation, PO Box 151, Whiteville NC 28472.
McKenzie Mortuary, 112 Jefferson Street, Whiteville, NC is serving the Wyche family
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