Ann Benner (Winslow) Brock

Ann Benner Winslow Brock, Trenton, NC - wife, mother, teacher, legal assistant,
accountant and active community volunteer - died at her home on November 23, 2022,
after a decade long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She was 93.
Ann was born and reared in Raleigh, N.C. She was the daughter of Edith Roberts
Winslow, a teacher at Saint Mary's College, and Willis Stone Winslow, a civil engineer
and bridge builder with the N.C. State Highway Commission. Her life-long passions
were her family, her adopted hometown of Trenton and Jones County, and service to
others. She graduated from Broughton High School in Raleigh, and then received her
bachelor’s degree in Home Economics from Women’s College in Greensboro (now
UNC-G). Upon graduation from WC, she moved to Kinston, NC to teach at Grainger
High School. While there she met her best friend, Alice Squires Wooten, and had many
memorable moments with the teachers living at the “Hobgoodery” (Mrs. Hobgood’s
boarding home on the hill on Queen St). While in Kinston, she met her husband of 35
years, Donald Patrick Brock. After they were married in 1956, she and Donald moved
to his hometown of Trenton, where they built their family home on Brock’s Millpond. The
beautiful setting on the pond, framed by 100 year old cypress trees draped with spanish
moss, provided for a lifetime of good memories with family and friends. Their back deck
over the water was the site of many pig pickings, brunswick stew and fish stew
gatherings.
Ann continued her career after moving to Trenton, first as an agent with the Jones
County Extension Service, and then as a kindergarten teacher at St. Mary’s Episcopal
Church and Arendell Parrott Academy. In 1970, she joined her husband’s law office as
a legal assistant, a labor of love in every way - she truly lived to help those who were
their friends and clients. She semi-retired after Donald’s death in 1991, but regularly
remained in contact with their clients and friends doing taxes and bookkeeping for many
years. She served as a Trenton Town Commissioner in the 90s, but her true love was
community service. She lived through her work as a Board Member for Habitat for
Humanity of Jones County, as an organist and lay reader for Grace Episcopal
Church in Trenton, and was an active member of the Jones County Historical
Society and Jones County Arts Council. She was instrumental in the establishment
of the Jones County Veterans Memorial, and thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with
Tina Moon on her book “The Architectural History of Jones County”. She loved animals,
and rescued many who then became part of her family “animal farm”. The volunteer
work that she enjoyed the most, however, was her work with the “Pink Ladies”, the
volunteers at Lenoir Memorial Hospital, where she led the “Monkey Business” sock
monkey program for children surgery patients for many years. In 2002, she was named
a “North Carolina Volunteer of the Year” by Governor Mike Easley.
Ann is survived by her daughter, Clare Lynn Brock of Trenton, and two dear nephews,
William R. Bourne and wife Meredith of Tarboro, NC and Joel K. Bourne Jr. and wife
Kelly Stryker of Wilmington, NC; In addition to her parents Willis and Edith Winslow and
husband, Donald P. Brock, she was predeceased by her son, Donald Patrick Brock Jr;
daughter, Caroline Elizabeth Brock; sister, Edith Winslow Bourne and husband Joel K
Bourne; and brother, Paul Roberts Winslow.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, December 2nd, 2022 at 1:00 pm in the
Trenton Cemetery. Visitation will be held in Grace Episcopal Church Parish House after
the service. Flowers are welcome - Ann loved flowers, especially during the long
goodbye of her illness, when happiness was often found in freshly picked blooms from
her yard arranged in any available vessel - but in lieu, a donation in her memory to a
charity that is important to the giver would give tribute to Ann’s legacy of giving. Many
thanks to all her wonderful and patient caregivers over the years of her illness,
especially Kathryn Sanderford, Jennifer Cannon, Regina Patrick, Becky Thomas, Merry
Nethery, Annie and Pam Minnifield, Jettie Hicks, Michelle Kolbe and Arlee Ryan. And
much love and thanks to those who have provided support during a difficult holiday
season, most especially irreplaceable friends Skip Byrum and Bill and Tinka Talbert.
Services entrusted to Sayland Funeral Home, Maysville, NC

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