Earl Leroy Emory, Jr.

Earl Leroy Emory, Jr., 95, passed away peacefully at home on Monday, December 23, 2013. He had been in declining health for several years. Earl was a Raleigh native, born on July 31, 1918, the only child of Earl Leroy Emory and Annie Walton Barber. A lifelong resident of Raleigh, NC, except for high school years when his fathers work as a Norfolk Southern Engineer took the family to Chocowinity, NC. He began his education at Wylie School in Raleigh, with his favorite memory of the day an airplane flew over the school and dropped small parachutes with Baby Ruth candy bars. He graduated from Washington High School, Washington, NC and entered Duke University at the age of 17. After graduation from Duke in 1940, he began his 40-year career at the North Carolina State Laboratory of Hygiene of the North Carolina State Board of Health in 1941. He served in the United States Army Medical Corps from 1942-46, first at Camp Barkley, Abilene, Texas, where through family friends he met the love of his life, Sara Frances McKelvey. He was next assigned to the laboratory of Gardiner General Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, an assignment that lasted until the end of the war and his honorable discharge in 1946. He returned to Raleigh and the Laboratory of Hygiene. In 1948, the State Laboratory of Hygiene sent Earl to Cornell University to study with Dr. George N. Papanicoloau, who had developed the pap smear. Earl returned and established the Cancer Cytology Program at the State Lab, one of the first such programs in the country. His program became a model for such labs across the nation, and in 1995, Earl was recognized for his contributions to the medical profession and public health with the John Huske Anderson Award of the North Carolina Medical Society. During his 33-year career in cytotechology at the State Lab, his office read an estimated five million pap smears. Earl participated in the development of the American Society of Cytology and continued his participation with the Interlaboratory Comparison Program in Cervico-Vaginal Cytology of the College of American Pathologists after his retirement. Earl was an active member of numerous community and professional organizations, and an officer and award recipient, from the Raleigh Jaycees, the Sertoma Club of Raleigh, the Kiwanis Club, the American Cancer Society, the American Rose Society and the Raleigh Rose Society. An avid gardener, for years Earl raised many varieties of Dahlias before discovering his life-long passion for roses. He was a Consulting Rosarian for the American Rose Society. He enjoyed exhibiting and won many awards for his roses, but his greatest pleasure was sharing them with others. Earl had diverse interests and for many years enjoyed horseback riding, sailing, tennis and photography. Earl was a font of knowledge about the history of Raleigh, Wake County and the State, taking a special interest since his ancestors came to this area in the early 1700s. Throughout his many years in Raleigh, Earl had a wonderful association with several Raleigh churches: Tabernacle Baptist Church, Fairmont United Methodist Church, Highland Methodist Church, and First Baptist Church. Earl was a Charter Member of Fairmont United Methodist Church. Then, Earl was asked to participate in the founding of a neighborhood church, and Ridgewood Methodist Church, Raleigh, NC, held its first meeting in his living room on July 25, 1954. He was elected its first chairman of the board. The name of the church was soon changed to Highland Methodist Church. Earl is a long time member of First Baptist Church. Earl was predeceased in death by his parents and his son, Earl Leroy Emory, III. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Sara Frances McKelvy, his son John Lawrence Emory of Houston, Texas, and his daughter Martha Anne Emory, of Raleigh. He leaves three granddaughters and six great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions can be made to First Baptist Church, 99 North Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC 27603 or Heartland Home Health Care and Hospice, 3200 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100, Raleigh, NC 27604. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, December 29th, at 2:00 p.m., Bryan-Lee Funeral Home, 831 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh (919.832.8225). The family will receive friends following the service at the funeral home. The burial service will be held Saturday, 1:00 p. m., at Historic Oakwood Cemetery.