On Sunday, Oct. 15, the West Southern Pines Garden Club will sponsor its annual "Cemetery Day" at 4 p.m. at First Missionary Baptist Church in Southern Pines.

The annual program, designed to raise funds to help maintain Woodlawn Cemetery, will feature educator Ruth Perry Watkins, who was North Carolina's Teacher of the Year from 1977-79.

Watkins taught French and social studies at West Southern Pines High School from 1947-1956.

After leaving Moore County Schools in 1956, Watkins was the principal of Hamlet Junior High School from 1980-85; president of the Southeast Region Association of Classroom Teachers; president of the North Carolina Association of Educators; president of the North Carolina Retired School Personnel, and vice president of the NEA-Retired Advisory Board.

Watkins served as NCAE delegate to the World Conference on the Teaching Profession in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1978; National Education Association delegate to the Soviet Union n 1979; editor of the AARP Legislative News publication from 1982-1992; editor of the N.C. Retired School Personnel newsletter from 1994-96; and is currently secretary of the N.C. Governor's Advisory Council on Aging, and parliamentarian of the N.C. Senior Tar Heel Legislature.

She received the N.C. Retired School Personnel Distinguished Service Award in 2003 and the National Education Retired Distinguished Award 2005.

Watkins is married to J.C. Watkins, retired assistant superintendent and Richmond County commissioner. The Watkins' have one son.

"Garden Club leaders Emma Jane Waddell, Norma Lewis and others encourage everyone to hear this speaker and support the Woodlawn Cemetery effort," says a spokesman.