Martin

Bernadette Mary Martin, 88, died on Thursday, March 14, 2024, at Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point, N.C.

Born Dec. 15, 1935, in Chicora, Bernie, as she was known by family and friends, was the eighth of Peter and Marie Fugini’s 11 children. After graduating from Chicora High School, she attended secretarial school and worked in nearby Butler. Independent and adventurous, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1963 and became a secretary for the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1966, she took a two-year CIA assignment in Brussels, Belgium, that gave her a chance to travel around Europe.

Back in Washington, she met David Martin, a career CIA officer who became her husband of 45 years. They spent the early 1970s posted in Saudi Arabia and eventually settled in York, Pa., where they raised a family and pretended they hadn’t worked for the CIA.

A devout Roman Catholic who volunteered at many churches, Bernie loved her large Italian family and moved to North Carolina a decade ago to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She was a voracious reader and dedicated library volunteer, a talented gardener and a phenomenal cook. Her signature spaghetti and meatballs dinner, accompanied by red wine and Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits, will be missed tremendously by anyone fortunate enough to have tasted it. She was a talented musician who played the piano and performed with the Pennybyrn Singers. Her other passions included coffee, travel, fine chocolates and startling people with her quiet demeanor that masked a wicked sense of humor.

Bernie is survived by her two sons, Stephen Martin and his wife, Dawn, of Greensboro, N.C., and Jeffrey Martin of Charlottesville, Va.; two grandchildren, Evan and Elizabeth “Elly”; sisters, Rosemary Rumbaugh and Sylvia Pennington; her brother, Vince Fugini; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Dave; her sister, Gloria; and her brothers, Lewis, Robert, Father Francis, Alfred, Frank and Carl.

MARTIN — Services for Bernadette Mary Martin, who died Thursday, March 14, 2024, were held on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in High Point, N.C. Inurnment will take place in Chicora.

Memorial contributions in memory of Bernadette Martin may be given to the Pennybyrn Library Fund at 109 Penny Road, High Point, NC 27260.

Please sign the guest book at www.butlereagle.com.