Margaret Gilreece Alexander

MARGARET GILREECE ALEXANDER ALEXANDER

Margaret Gilreece Alexander Alexander, 97, affectionately known to one and all as “Mother Margaret”, was born on September 20, 1924, in Charlotte, NC, to the late Eulie Lester Gilreece Alexander and Alberta Wallace Alexander.  She died peacefully in her sleep on June 3, 2022, at her residence.  A lifelong resident of Charlotte, she received her primary education at the Alexander Street Elementary School; receiving her high school diploma in 1942 graduating from Second Ward High, where she proudly served as May Queen in 1941 and 1942. She continued her education, graduating from the North Carolina College for Negroes, Durham, NC, (now North Carolina Central University), in 1946, with a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Education.

Mother Margaret married the late Kelly M. Alexander, Sr., on April 21, 1946. During their time together, she served as his executive secretary for 31 years, supporting his activities in civil rights and business. She also focused on raising their two children, Kelly M. Alexander, Jr., born in 1948, (now representing NC House District 107) and Alfred L. Alexander, (President/CEO Alexander Funeral Home), born in 1952. As her children matured, she served as a guiding maternal light for her grandchildren, Nathanael Maurice Alexander (1987), an attorney in Atlanta. Georgia: Kelly M. Alexander III (1988), an entrepreneur/entertainer in South Africa and Desmond Phifer (1978), who is employed in the insurance industry.

On November 22, 1965, two years after the assignation of President John F. Kennedy, during a thunderstorm, her home was bombed. Domestic terrorists, tried unsuccessfully to kill or intimidate her family and three other prominent civil rights families that night. They failed.  Her community involvement never faltered.

Along the way, Mother Margaret, became an amateur historian, keeping scrapbooks of the activities of the Charlotte Branch NAACP and the North Carolina NAACP State Conference; contributing photographs and doing oral history interviews for various university-based research projects. Her scrapbooks were displayed at many NAACP meetings around the state. Thirteen, one-thousand-dollar scholarships were given out in her and her late husbands names in 1994 & 1995, funded by RJ Reynolds Tobacco, in recognition of their interest in youth development. Extremely active in her church during the 1950’s and 1960’s, she organized one of the NAACP’s first church based junior youth councils at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. As her children grew older, she moved her advisership to the Metropolitan Youth Council of the NAACP.  In total she served as an NAACP youth advisor from 1959 to 1971.

During her college years she affiliated with the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (1945). At the time of her passing she was a member in good standing of the Alpha Lambda Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha and had been recognized as a “Golden Soror”.  Charter member and past Associate Loyal Lady Ruler of the Zack Alexander Assembly No. 35, Order of the Golden Circle, PHA; Charter member and past Associate Secretary, Rosa M Morris Chapter No. 650, Order of the Eastern Star, PHA; Charter Member and past treasurer of the Charlotte Chapter of the National Women of Achievement ; Charter member and Life Member of the, Queen City Chapter (2000), National Women of Achievement; Golden Heritage Life Member of the NAACP; Life Member, Second Ward High National Alumni Foundation.

For her community service over the years, she received many awards, citations, plaques, and certificates all attesting to her unselfish dedication to helping young people. On December 23, 1995, during the administration of Governor James B Hunt, she received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in recognition of her then 50 years of community service.

Mother Margaret is survived by two sons, Kelly M Alexander, Jr., and Alfred L Alexander (Helen Anthony) both of Charlotte, NC; three grandsons, Kelly M Alexander III, Johannesburg, South Africa, Nathanael M Alexander, Esq., Atlanta, Georgia, Desmond J Phifer (Shanina Melton), Charlotte, NC; two great grandchildren, Cloey N Barnes, and Aiden I Phifer and a host of cousins, other relatives, and friends.

Mother Margaret considered the staff of Alexander Funeral Home as family, serving as a community consultant to the family business to the very end.