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EMILY URQUHART AYSCUE
October 31, 1933 - November 1, 2022
Emily Urquhart Ayscue, wife
of Past President Ozzie Ayscue
(1998-99,) died peacefully on
November 1, 2022 in Chapel Hill
just after her eighty-ninth birth-
day. Born Emily Mizell Urquhart
in Woodville, North Carolina,
Emily played on the girls’ basket-
ball team in high school; she at-
tended St. Mary’s Junior College,
where she was editor of the stu-
dent newspaper. In 1955 she fin-
ished her undergraduate degree
in Education at the Univer-
sity of North Carolina at Chap-
el Hill, where she met Edwin
Osborne Ayscue, Jr., to whom she
was married for sixty-five years.
I once asked Emily, when they
were nearly fifty years into that marriage, whether it had been love at first sight. With her signature twinkle in her eye, Emily said that she wasn’t all that sure she actually wanted to get married – she enjoyed teaching so much. Apparently, she excelled at both teaching and marriage.
Emily taught high school civics in Norfolk, VA and Durham, NC, where her students excelled, and she later returned to UNC for her Masters degree in Education. Charlotte, became Emily and Ozzie’s home in 1960, and they devoted themselves to community life. Emily volunteered in the Junior League and served on boards of the Thompson Children’s Home and the Commu- nity School of the Arts as well as St. Mary’s School in Raleigh. For more than four decades, Emily and Ozzie belonged to a reading group of good friends, who were always highlights in their lives, and with whom they shared many travel adventures. Emily was active in Christ Episcopal Church, where she served on the Ves- try, and later became a member of Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, where they moved in later years. Em- ily also was a member of the Charlotte Assembly and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
Emily was an avid entertainer, accomplished bridge player and an impressive would-be husband- screener for her three daughters. She was also a proud grand- mother, delighting in her eleven grandchildren’s antics and ac- complishments over the years.
At her memorial service, Emi- ly’s son, Edwin Osborne Ayscue, III, told the congregants that his mother:
would be so happy you are here. She loved, loved gath- erings, and she would want to make sure everything was just right for you, and mostly she would be thrilled that we have an opportunity to be with each other. Perhaps one
thing we all have in common in our experienc- es is that when she was with you, she was never somewhere else. One-on-one, connecting with you, was her superpower.
I have never met Emily and Ozzie’s son, and I certainly did not know Emily as well as he did, but, boy, does that capture her. I saw Emily only at College meetings, lots of College Meet-
ings. And when you were lucky enough to be seated next to her at dinner, it was a treat. You got a heavy help- ing of that eye-twinkle. You got her undivided attention. You con- nected. Well, no you didn’t connect, she did. She put the beautiful ding in Southern Belle.
She will be missed. Certainly by Ozzie, by her son and three daughters and their families and her elev- en grandchildren and her bridge partners. And by all lucky enough to have known her.
WINTER 2023 JOURNAL 120