Sue Waldroop was honored as the recipient of the 2023 Macon Matriarch award, presented by the Women’s History Trail, a project of the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County. The award recognizes a woman who has made steady and useful contributions to the community in categories such as education, government, heritage, arts and occupations. Waldroop, turned 90 just a couple of days later.

While working and raising a family, Waldroop earned a degree in social work from Western Carolina University, graduating summa cum laude in 1979. She worked for the Macon County Department of Social Services from 1965 to 1983. She then went to work for the N.C. Services for the Blind and had some clients who lived on the Cherokee reservation and only spoke their native language, so she learned to speak some Cherokee.

When her children were growing up, she served as a Brownie Scout leader and a 4-H leader. She teamed up with Joann Corbin to organize the Pink Ladies volunteer group at Angel Community Hospital. She also served as president of the Friends of the Library during construction of the new library on Siler Road.

She retired in 1994 but remained active serving several terms on the Macon County Planning Board, as chairman on the Macon County Board of Elections, and on the Macon County Democratic Party executive committee. She was a member of the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County board for many years, serving as secretary part of that time. Even after she rotated off the board, she continued to volunteer at the annual Franklin Area Folk Festival.

Waldroop’s great-great-great-uncles came to the area before it was even a county. She is a descendant of William Morrison, who settled here in 1832, and whose home in Oak Grove is one of the oldest in the county. She remembers listening to her grandmother tell stories from the Civil War era and what life was like here then.