Mary Hinkle Doby lived to be 104. Above, Wiley, Ila, daughter Beth, Mary, son Mark, and Mark’s wife Allison gather to celebrate Mary’s 95th birthday. Below, Wiley stands beside the sign in front of the Mary Hinkle Memorial Playground on the Mills Home campus in Thomasville.
The word ‘Christian’ in the text is essential,” her 75-year-old son Wiley Doby, Jr. asserts. “My family has wanted to help children since my grandparents first hosted a child from Mills Home in their own home for holidays and summers. And it was their desire for the children to know Jesus that drove their passion. It is at the heart of our family’s desire to help—it is done in His name.”
Stanford Oscar (S. O.) Hinkle understood children’s hardships. He was fatherless at age five and by age six was plowing fields behind a mule. “He had a heart for hurting children. He was committed to helping kids have a better life and he wanted them to know the Lord,” Wiley says.
S. O. and his wife Fannie were determined to make children’s lives better. Wiley has memories of riding from Winston-Salem with his grandparents to pick up Dean Lunsford from his Mills Home cottage. He remembers Fannie’s home-cooked meals and he and his sister Nancy, with parents Mary and Wiley Jacob Doby, Sr., sitting at the dinner table with Don and their grandparents, creating good memories.
S. O. and Fannie taught their children, oldest daughter Mary, sons S. O., Jr. (Pete) and Talmadge, and daughter Becky, the importance of faith and caring for others. The family attended New Friendship Baptist Church on Old Lexington Road in Winston-Salem. It is the church that Mary and Wiley, Sr. attended after they married and where Mary played the organ for more than 30 years.
“Nancy and I were in church before we could walk,” Wiley says. “It is not more than a quarter of a mile from where we grew up. When the doors were open, we were there. Church was a big part of our family’s life.”
Like their parents, Mary and her siblings had a heart for Baptist Children’s Homes (BCH). The family gave many gifts through the years to help with operating needs, renovations, and furnishing and constructing buildings. As a special way to remember S. O. and Fannie, their children donated the family’s office supply store to help fund the construction of Hinkle House, one of BCH’s first homes for intellectually/developmentally disabled adults.
Wiley’s father passed 42 years ago. He had owned and operated Doby’s Bakery on West Fourth Street in Winston-Salem. He was compassionate and kind. It is said that no one could speak badly of him. Mary was a life-long educator who retired when Wiley, Sr. was diagnosed with cancer, only to return after his death in 1982 to become a substitute teacher until she was 81. When she stepped out of the classroom for good, she dedicated her time as a BCH volunteer. She became known as “Miss Baptist Children’s Homes.”
Lessons of service were learned by her children. Nancy Doby Elrod was an elementary school reading instructor for many years before her retirement. When Wiley was asked to become a BCH trustee, he gladly accepted, serving several terms. After retiring from public education and serving as school superintendent in several counties, Wiley became BCH’s director of planned giving.
“My job was to help others realize how they could help children through a financial legacy.”
A diagnosis of multiple myeloma in 2016 brought an end to working at BCH, but it did not change his heart. Now, in full remission from this complex form of blood cancer, Wiley remains dedicated to his family’s legacy.
He and wife Ila’s two children Beth and Mark strive to live up to the family example. Beth, husband James, and children Ila and Nora live in Salt Lake City. She is a pediatric infectious disease doctor and James designs and creates pediatric prosthetics. Mark, wife Allison, and children Cate and Myers live in Salisbury. He is a lawyer and a Meals on Wheels volunteer and Allison is dedicated to children’s education.
“Our family, through four generations, has been dedicated to Christian service,” Wiley says. “It was at the heart of our parents’ and grandparents’ lives.”
Legacies pass down from grandparents, to parents, to children, and to grandchildren. The Hinkle/Doby family legacy continues making other lives better.
Learn how you can leave a legacy that changes lives. Visit our planned giving site at bchlegacy.org
Written by Jim Edminson, Editor of Charity & Children