Mary Burson and Carole Kaiser

Mary Burson and Carole Kaiser

We were both born in Chicago on opposite ends of the city in 1934.  Carole received an RN and pursued a career in nursing.   Mary received an Associate degree in Business and worked as an executive secretary and bookkeeper.

We have been together as life-partners for 37 years.  Both of us brought four children to the relationship.  We learned quickly that two mothers and eight children are enough.  Today we are blessed with 13 grandchildren. 

After retiring from an electrolysis practice that we owned and operated for 16 years, we moved to a log house in the NW corner of CT.  Here we helped Carole’s brother run the French Bistro he owned.  After four years, we escaped the insane restaurant business, sold our home, bought a motor home and traveled the country and Canada full time for the next three years.

Twice our travels brought us to the mountains of Western NC where we fell in love with the region.  On our second visit we impulsively bought a town house in Laurel Park and have lived here for the past eight and a half years.  We have never regretted that decision.

We share in a passion for social justice and caring for others.  Since living here some of the things we have been involved in are Love Welcomes All, Feed the Kids and Faith Link as well as volunteering at Hospice, the Free Clinic and Pardee Hospital.  

We feel fortunate to have found a church that not only preaches a life affirming theology but lives it. We look forward to being part of the First Congregational family.

Kathleen Wallace August 14th, 2011

Kathleen Wallace

Kathleen comes to us from the First Presbyterian Church PC USA in Granville, Ohio where she has been a member for almost 29 years.  She enjoyed serving as an elder there on both the worship and Christian education committees.  Her greatest joy there was leading a group of oral interpretation readers called The Light Readers and organizing and choreographing for the Liturgical Dancers, elementary children from second through seventh grades.  Prior to being a Presbyterian she grew up in the Roman Catholic Church in Dayton, Ohio and has sixteen years of Catholic education there.   She credits Vatican II and a class in Demythologizing the Bible, at the Marianist University of Dayton, for helping her become a Presbyterian. 

In Ohio she was a teacher of English, Composition, and Theatre and has taught at all levels from grade school through college.  As a stay-at-home Mom she spent time working with her local Hospice as editor of its quarterly bulletin and coordinating volunteers and their education.   She is a certified yoga teacher and, currently in Hendersonville, teaches yoga at Brightwater Yoga Studio, Kenmure Fitness Center, and in her small home studio.

She and her late husband, Richard, have one adult son, Andrew, living in Newark, Ohio.  She has been in Hendersonville for five years and volunteers with the Flat Rock Playhouse and is a house docent at the Carl Sandburg home.  When time permits, she loves to read and garden.  She is ruled by two elder, independent felines. 

Kathleen particularly likes the open and affirming nature of First Congregational and this welcoming congregation.  She has already taken advantage of some of the educational offerings and looks forward to more.

Pete and Tess Tintle June 26, 2011

Sunday June 26, 2011

Tess and Pete were both born in small town America, Tess in Clifton-Glendale, South Carolina and Pete in Demarest, New Jersey. How these two disparate souls (that’s “disparate” not “desperate”, well Pete can be a little desperate but I digress)… how these two souls managed to find each other over the next 30 years and one thousand miles is still a mystery. But the miracle and the blessing is that they did. Tess by way of Charlotte, NC where she devoted herself to the study and practice of nursing at the Presbyterian School of Nursing  and Peter by way of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta in pursuit of Social Work. After experiencing Georgia’s warmth and hospitality, Peter soon realized that the Big Apple was not his favorite fruit and decided instead to seek shelter somewhere south of Gaffney’s Big Peach near his best friends Dave and Alice Hurst. And so it happened where Tess had volunteered to draw blood and Peter had volunteered to donate that the two would be introduced in the infirmary at the School for the Deaf and the Blind in Spartanburg. When Peter returned home that Christmas to visit his family he brought with him his most beautiful and charming fiancé as his gift.

Tess’s father, the Reverend Ralph Carter, a Methodist Minister (and fine judge of character) agreed to perform the sacred covenant of holy matrimony in May of 1978 where Pete and Tess were consecrated as one. And every year since that day, Peter has struggled to remember their anniversary before Tess has to remind him. Anyway during those 32 or is it 33 years, they lived and worked in South Carolina, Tess at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and Pete at DSS and Spartanburg Tech. 

Together they raised two precious and loving children, Eric and Lauren, who have now grown up to pursue their own lives and careers. This, leaving the nest quite empty (except for their loyal Shih Tzu Pup), suggested that Pete and Tess find something new to do with their lives.

And so they did….

They discovered Hendersonville. Just a few miles up the road but to them it’s a whole ‘nother world.  And the United Church of Christ, a very, very special place and congregation that Pete and Tess feel very blessed and honored to be part of.