A former North Carolina High School Athletic Association state women’s tennis champion has died at the age of 49.
Mary Lloyd Hodges Barbera, who won the NCHSAA open classification women’s champion under her maiden name in 1981 and ’82 while playing for Vance High in Henderson, passed away on Wednesday.
A standout collegiate tennis player, she graduated from Peace College in 1985 with an associate of arts degree and was a junior college all-American, and then went to North Carolina State where she played tennis.
She had served as the Director of Marketing, Membership and Special Events in addition to other positions for the United States Tennis Association of North Carolina.
In 1991, Mary Lloyd was honored with the North Carolina Junior Tennis Council Award given in honor of John Peddycord. In 1999, she was named a Mary Milam Lifetime Achievement Award winner. In 2008, she received the Marilyn Sherman Spirit Award for extraordinary spirit in growing the game of tennis in the USTA Southern Section.
She was a member of the William Peace University Hall of Fame.
A memorial service will be held Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. at Oak Ridge Military Academy in the Bonner Field House. The family will receive friends on Saturday, April 25, from 6-8 p.m. at the Cumby Family Funeral Service High Point Chapel. The address is 1015 Eastchester Drive, High Point, NC 27262.
