NewsRelease

Martha Blakeney Hodges Family Pledges $1 Million for Jackson Library

GREENSBORO – Two children of former North Carolina First Lady Martha Blakeney Hodges have pledged the largest gift ever to Jackson Library at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro – $1 million to endow the Special Collections and University Archives.

The thousands of rare books, manuscripts and other materials will now be known as the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and Archives.

Martha Blakeney graduated from the State Normal and Industrial College, now UNCG, in 1918. She married Luther Hodges, who became governor and served in the cabinet of President John F. Kennedy, and she was the first chairperson of the Friends of the Library.

Two couples – Cheray and Luther Hodges Jr. of Chapel Hill and Donald and Betsy Hodges Bernard of Durham – each pledged $500,000 for the gift. Luther Hodges Jr. and Betsy Hodges Bernard are children of the former governor and first lady.

Chancellor Patricia Sullivan announced the gift at the annual Friends of the Library dinner Tuesday. “This is the most generous gift ever made to Jackson Library, and it recognizes one of the great first ladies of North Carolina,” Sullivan said.

“Martha Blakeney Hodges’ children loved her dearly, and they are honoring her memory with a fitting tribute that will support our library as an important scholarly resource for many years to come.”

The gift will allow the library to expand and preserve its collections; undertake special projects, such as gathering oral histories; and provide greater access to scholars by converting more books and documents to digital formats.

“This gift is a gift to all of our students, since Jackson Library serves undergraduate and graduate students, on campus and at a distance,” said Library Director Doris Hulbert.

After graduating from the State Normal and Industrial College, Martha Blakeney, a native of Monroe, taught at Leaksville High School and served as chairperson of the history department at Greensboro High School.

She married Luther Hodges, a young textile executive with the department store Marshall Field and Company, and returned to Leaksville in 1922. During the Depression, she helped teach the children of the town’s mill families.

With the support of his wife, Hodges became vice president of Marshall Field’s and general manager of its manufacturing division. Together they raised three children.

“My mother was the most influential person in my life, and I find myself quoting her often,” said Betsy Hodges Bernard. “Without any pretense, she was an honest, ‘tell-it-like-it-is’ person, very loving and caring. She was the proverbial woman behind a successful man.”

Luther Hodges was elected lieutenant governor in 1952 and became governor two years later when Gov. William B. Umstead died. Hodges was elected to a full term in 1956. Coincidentally, Hugh Morton, the featured speaker at Tuesday’s dinner, worked as Hodges’ press secretary.

As first lady, Martha Blakeney Hodges supervised the redecoration of the Governor’s Mansion and the care of its grounds. Reserved and shy of publicity, she was an advocate for literacy throughout the state and helped to rehabilitate the inmates who worked at the mansion.

“My mother was truly the unsung hero of my father’s success. She was the source of the grace and dignity that characterized his administration,” said Luther Hodges Jr. “Our tribute to her at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and particularly the library she loved so much, is only appropriate and indeed somewhat overdue.”

President John F. Kennedy named Luther Hodges his secretary of commerce, a position he held from 1961-1965. His wife would call those years the most memorable of her life.

After their time in Washington, they moved to Chapel Hill, where she indulged her passion for gardening and for the game of bridge. She died in 1969.

Luther Hodges Jr. manages two investment partnerships and recently taught at the Anderson Schools of Management at the University of New Mexico.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hodges served as chairman of the board of North Carolina National Bank, now Bank of America. He was appointed undersecretary and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce and ran for U.S. Senate in 1978.

Betsy Hodges met Donald Bernard while both were students at Duke University, and they married in 1946. Bernard was an executive with Shell Oil Company for 37 years, during which time the family lived in nine different places around the globe. The Bernards have three children and nine grandchildren.

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