Mina Lou Avery Paille

Mina Lou Avery Paille, a long time resident of Grace Heights, died on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at age 96 after years of declining health. A Burke County native, she and her twin sister, Mary Sue, were born on September 28, 1911. They were the third and fourth daughters among the eleven children born to the late Olin Melvin and Mary Lou Kincaid Avery. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by her husband, William (Bill) Paille as well as brothers Francis Theodore Avery, Carl Baker Avery, Issac Marion Avery and Clifton Kincaid Avery and sisters Rose Kathleen Avery, Elizabeth Avery Barrs, Mary Sue Avery Dodd, Esther Avery Bowman, Eugenia Avery Cornelieusen and Annabel Avery Harper.Mina was a graduate of Berea College in Kentucky and was a special education teacher who worked for a time at NC School for the Deaf. During the war years she worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC where she met William Paille, her future husband. In 1946, she and Bill, a World War II aviator, assumed operation of Davis Airport in Laytonsville, MD. Later they purchased the airport. After her husband’s death in 1977, she operated the airport by herself until her retirement in 1999 at age 88. In 1998, she was recognized by the Maryland Transportation Department for 50 years of aviation service. Mina was a charter member of North Morganton United Methodist Church in Morganton.She is survived by numerous nieces and nephews living throughout the country including David Campbell, Sam Avery, Linda Lackey, Sally Haney and Mary Ann Plese all of Morganton.Graveside rites will be held on Friday, November 23, 2007 at 1:00 pm at Forest Hill Cemetery in Morganton with the Rev. Tony Matthews officiating. Sossoman Funeral Home is assisting the family.