SILER CITY — Mary John Little Resch, the widow of Alan Resch, the former Chatham News and Chatham Record publisher, died Saturday after a brief battle with abdominal cancer.
She was 82. Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Siler City.
Mrs. Resch, a native of Edgecomb County, moved with her husband to Siler City when he joined the family business in 1962; the newspapers had been in the family since 1939. For many decades, she wrote an immensely popular weekly cooking column, providing recipes and stories about the recipes for the newspaper’s readers.
After Alan Resch’s death in 2016, Mrs. Resch assumed ownership and control of the newspapers before selling them in 2018 to Chatham Media Group LLC, which continues to own and operate the Chatham News + Record today.
Bob Wachs, the newspaper’s former managing editor who spent 25 years at the newspapers over the course of several stints, said Mrs. Resch would quietly make visits to the newspaper’s office and was always a welcome presence.
“Mary John often would just show up at the paper without us realizing she was there at first,” Wachs recalled. “She was quiet, sort of the calm of the chaos that sometimes went on in production, especially during peak times. But she was always pleasant, usually asking not only how were things going for the paper but how were other things in our lives.”
Wachs added that describing Mrs. Resch as a “great cook” was “like saying it gets dark on a cloudy night.”
“Alan would often cook for Tuesday lunch for the staff, and it was good, but Mary John’s sweets were never turned away,” he said. “Those were good days.”
Mrs. Resch continued to write her cooking column for a few months after selling the newspaper. News + Record Publisher and Editor Bill Horner III said when she finally gave it up, “we got so many complaints — readers really, really loved her writing and her recipes.”
In addition to her roles at the newspaper, Mrs. Resch was an active leader at First United Methodist Church of Siler City, in the local United Way effort and many other organizations, including the Siler City Garden Club, the Chatham Country Library Board, Girl Scouts of America troop leader, and as a tutor in Chatham County Schools.
She was known as an expert gardener, voracious reader, and accomplished needleworker.
She is survived by her daughters, Mary Alice Lloyd of Williamsburg, Virginia, and and Margaret Morgan of Belleair, Florida.
Morgan said her mother was raised as an only child to parents who were late in life when she arrived.
“My grandfather was in his late 50s and my grandmother was in her late 30s,” she said. “Mom grew up with adults during and after WWII. She learned to be independent and comfortable alone — both features that served her well throughout her life.
“Our mother was a rock,” Morgan said. “ She did everything in moderation without the ups and downs that afflicted the rest of the world. She seemed to never change (or age) and rarely ruffled. And those traits were always comforting to those of us privileged to know and be around her.”
Mrs. Resch’s daughters described their mother as “usually the smartest person in the room — but she didn’t feel the need to let you know. She was certainly the smartest person we ever met. She was the family memory bank — she never forgot anything.”
“Our mother never spoke ill of anyone,” Lloyd said. “When she interacted with people who were unaccepting or judgmental of others, my mom would comment that perhaps god put those people here to teach us acceptance and tolerance.
“Our mother was generous, not in a grand showy way, but in quiet ways. When making donations, she would give to the general fund because in her words ‘someone has to pay for the toilet paper.’”
Lloyd said that although her motehr was born and raised in eastern North Carolina — the land of vinegar-based barbeque, collard greens, and biscuits — Mrs. Resch enjoyed testing all kinds of cuisines and recipes.
“She was always on the hunt for something good and when she found it, she shared it with the rest of us in the cooking column she published with our dad,” she said. “Mom could cause a run on ingredients in the local stores just by printing a recipe like when she printed ‘The Recipe,’ which was a cake box based bar that had crumbled heath bars. We are not kidding when we say that the town sold out of heath bars.”
At the end of her life, when given a terrible diagnosis of stage IV abdominal cancer, her daughters said Mrs. Resch’s response was she “felt fortunate because there were so many people that had it worse.”
“We were privileged to get to spend the last seven weeks with our mother in Siler City,” Morgan said. “We were fortunate to have that time with her. And we were reminded of what makes a small town so special. Everyone we encountered shared a story about mom’s grace and local contributions. The letters and notes were so comforting. She will be missed.”
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Siler City, with visitation one hour prior to the service.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the First United Methodist Church of Siler City, Chatham Cares Community Pharmacy in Siler City or Liberty HomeCare and Hospice Services.
Her full obituary can be found on page A8.
