Mary Henigbaum

Lake Junaluska, Mary Henigbaum, age 86, of Lake Junaluska, died Thursday, September 25, 2008 of congestive heart failure at Haywood Regional Medical Center. She was a native of Kokomo, Indiana and had lived in Haywood County since 1971. She was a daughter of the late Edward W. and Zola Simmon Penn and was also preceded in death by her brother Robert Penn of Elkhart, IN. Mary studied six years at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, IL, and was a violinist in the Chicago Civic Orchestra. She was employed by Haywood County as a county planner from 1976 to 1989 and worked at Mountain Projects from 1971 to 1976. She was a member of Grace Church in the Mountains and was a member of Daughters of the King, a past member of the Vestry and a former choir director. Mary was also a member of Blue Ridge Watermedia Society, a member of Haywood County Arts Council and past chair for the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival Committee. Mary was a member of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Friends of Chamber Music in Davenport, Iowa. In North Carolina, Mary was a violinist in the Asheville, Hendersonville, and Western Carolina Civic Symphony Orchestras and fiddled in The Mountain Women's Cooperative Band and Mary's Family Band. She is survived by three daughters, Catherine Arps, and her husband, Ron, of Sylva, NC, Jane Fanning, and her husband, Rich, of Grosse Pointe Farms, MI, Nancy Honeytree Miller, and her husband, J.R., of Ft. Wayne, IN; one sister, Sarah Willette "Billie" Coleman, of East Lansing, MI; sister-in-law, Elizabeth "Betty" Jean Kreutzinger Penn, of Elkart, IN; her former husband William Henigbaum of Sylva, NC; four grandchildren, Hannah Arps, Emily Thanasi, William Miller and Eric Fanning; two great-grandchildren, Adah Rose and Walker Lee Ardyson, as well as a large, loving extended family. A Celebration of Life will be held on Monday, November 24, 2008 at Grace Church in the Mountains with Reverend Arlene Lukas officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Grace Church in the Mountains, 394 North Haywood Street, Waynesville, NC 28786, for the care and upkeep of the Memorial Garden or to the Haywood County Arts Council, 86 North Main Street, Waynesville, NC 28786.

Previous Events