Mary Dudley Wilmoth

FLORENCE Mary Dudley Monk Wilmoth, 87, died Thursday, January 21, 2016, at home after an illness.

Funeral services will be 2:00 p.m., Monday, January 25, 2016, at Waters-Powell Funeral Home Chapel with burial following in Mount Hope Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.

Say Mary Dudley and no one knows her, but just say Monk, and everyone whos lived in Florence for any length of time knows exactly who youre talking about. Monk was born June 14, 1928, in Florence, SC, one of five children of the late Henry Grady Martin and Mary Dudley King Martin. Raised in the country, she was an animal lover and an avid outdoors person.

Monk was ahead of her time in many ways. Back when women were expected to be homemakers and sit in the parlor, Monk blazed trails for future generations of women. She swam with alligators, flew airplanes, and rode horses and motor scooters.

Even though it was home to many alligators, Monk and her siblings made Muldrows Mill Pond their swimming hole. They also built platforms high in the many Cypress trees and spent hours high diving. Monk and her sister, Agnes, were adventuresome souls and once made off with five gallons of moonshine from an unattended whiskey still they found deep in that swamp.

Monk rode a motor scooter when it was uncommon for women to do so. It was her only means of transportation she rode it everywhere she went.

An animal lover, she owned many animals throughout her life, but perhaps her two favorites were her beloved Thoroughbred, Topper, and her German Shepherd, Devil. She rode Topper for 24 years and for many of those years, Devil accompanied them on their rides. In recent years, her persnickety cat, Stuff, stole her heart.

On a dare, Monk once rode Topper inside a South Irby Street restaurant, she turned around and rode off when startled diners looked up in disbelief.

Monk flew planes, too. She earned her private pilots license and had her own airplane. A woman aviator was such an oddity then, the Florence Morning News ran a story about her. Shoeless Monk, they called her, because she flew barefooted.

Later in life, Monk spent most of her time at the Florence Country Club. She was an active club member and generously volunteered to officiate and otherwise help at tournaments and other country club functions. She was an avid golfer and enjoyed the distinction of not only shooting a hole-in-one, she did it three times!

Monk began her professional career as a nursing student, but missed her beloved Topper and returned home to pursue a career as an xray technician at the Florence TB Sanitarium.

She left her job in 1950 when she married her first husband, Alfred Maxwell, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1975. Monk married Jim Wilmoth in 1979. They lived a rich, full and happy life until he passed away in August, 2009.

Monk was preceded in death by her husbands, Alfred Pinckney Maxwell and Jimmie Lee Wilmoth; her brothers, Grady and Lawrence Martin, and her sister, Agnes Monson.

She is survived by her sister, Millie Lester; a number of nieces and nephews; her caregiver and angel, Jerry Wilson; and a host of other friends. She is also survived by her beloved cat, Stuff, who she credits with saving her life once awakening her from a near diabetic coma by forcefully pouncing on her chest.

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The family will receive friends from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., Monday, at the funeral home.

Monday, January 25, 2016
2:00 PM

Waters-Powell Funeral Home
400 S Dargan Street
Florence, South Carolina 29506

The family will receive friends from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., Monday, at the funeral home.

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