Martha Helen Canaday

Dr. Martha Helen Canaday, age 93, of Greensboro, N.C., died Friday, Dec. 30, 2011 in Asheboro, N.C. She was born in Malvern on June 13, 1918 to the late Henry Newton Canaday Sr. and Martha Adkins Canaday at their home on Pine Bluff Street. Reared and receiving her early education in Malvern and Hot Springs, she graduated from Hot Springs High School in 1936. She attended Ouachita Baptist University for two years and earned her B.S.E. from Texas State College for Women in 1940, and earned her master's degree from LSU in 1945. Dr. Canaday received her doctorate in education from Penn State in 1962. She taught home economics at Malvern High School from 1941-1944. Dr. Canaday was instrumental in starting the Malvern Chamber of Commerce. She was a graduate assistant at LSU from 1944-45. Dr. Canaday was professor of home economics and also served as the dean of women at UCA from 1945-56. During the summer of 1956, she was a visiting professor at LSU, and from 1956-58 was an instructor at Penn State. In 1958 she began a long association with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, retiring in 1984, and currently bore the title of professor emeritus. She was also preceded in death by a twin brother, Henry Newton Canaday Jr. and a sister, Elizabeth Canaday Green. Dr. Canaday is survived by a nephew, Henry Thomas Canaday of Washington, D.C., and by her adopted family and caregivers, Dr. Robert Shackleford, Rachel Fesmire and their children, Kristi, Kori, and Will Shackleford, Chuck Fesmire, and Julia Hanover. Her funeral will be at two o'clock Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 2, 2012 in the chapel of J. A. Funk Funeral Home with Dr. Robert Shackleford Jr. officiating. The family will receive friends prior to the service. A private committal will take place on the family plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Memorials are requested to the Helen Canaday Scholarship Fund at UNCG, 1000 Spring Garden Street, Greensboro, N.C. 27403. Online condolences may be sent via jafunkfuneralhome.com.