By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — An avid golfing couple, Mary Seaford and her husband, Gene, conducted a see-saw battle for decades for the most career aces in the family.
It appeared they would finish their time on earth deadlocked for eternity with four apiece, but on a summer day at McCanless in 2021, Gene Seaford pulled out his pitching wedge, smacked it toward the flagstick 110 yards away and aced No. 12 from the red tees.
It was career hole-in-one No. 5 for Gene, breaking a longstanding draw with his wife and providing priceless bragging rights.
No. 12 at McCanless was Gene’s lucky hole. Two of his five aces came there.
Gene was 90 years old when he made that last ace, but he still could play the game. His scorecard for the back nine that day displayed three birdies in addition to the ace on No. 12.
“When my dad got that fifth hole-in-one at McCanless when he was 90, it kind of tore Mom up,” said Robin Seaford Leslie, one of Mary and Gene’s two children.
That’s an amusing and amazing story that offers some insight into how wonderfully competitive the Seafords were. They loved golf and they took it seriously. They played fair and they would rather be struck by lightning than cheat, but when they teed it up, they were out there to win.
“My grandmother was fun to play with and I think everyone always enjoyed playing with her,” said Dr. Brett Leslie, a Salisbury dentist. “But she really was a fierce competitor.”
Gene Seaford passed in 2023 at 92 years of age, 27 months after his last hole-in-one. He and Mary were married for 73 years.
Mary was reunited with Gene on Saturday, Dec. 6. She died at 93.
At Wednesday’s services, they came from all the local golf clubs to pay their respects to Mary Seaford, especially the lady golfers. Any female who owns a set of golf clubs in Rowan County has heard of Mary Seaford.
“Mary was always helpful to the young golfers, helped a lot of girls get started in the sport,” Dr. Leslie said.
Mary was born in the summer of 1932 during tough economic times for just about everyone.
She grew up in East Spencer and if you lived in East Spencer or Spencer, your family’s livelihood probably depended on the railroad. Mary was known as Marietta Waller in those days. She went to East Spencer High and played basketball. The 1950 East Spencer yearbook — The Torch — shows Marietta to be a pleasant, pretty girl, but she’s a also girl worried about her big brother, Charlie. He’ll soon be in the thick of the fighting for 11 months in Korea. Charlie will make it back home and go to work in the Spencer Shops as a machinist.
Gene became a railroad man at a young age. Southern Railway hired him as a carman apprentice in 1949 when he was 18. That was a job that included building, inspecting and repairing the rail cars.
Gene and Marietta were married in June 1950 in a double-ring ceremony at Long Street United Methodist Church in East Spencer. Marietta wore a white hat and clutched a white Bible. After the ceremony, the Seafords headed to the mountains for their honeymoon.
“They had to watch their pennies for a while,” Robin Leslie said. “They were just regular middle-class people.”
The Seafords had two children. Charles and Robin arrived eight years apart.
Gene was a hard worker and rose steadily with the railroad. In 1976, he was named general foreman of the mechanical department.
Mary also earned work promotions at Moore’s Supermarket of Lumber. She advanced from part-time cashier to office manager.
Robin believes Gene was the golfing enthusiast first, that Mary learned the game from her husband. A love for golf was one of the things they shared, and they traveled to play courses far and wide.
Robin doesn’t have a full list of all of Mary’s tournament victories, but they were extensive. She was part of the Women’s Golf Association at Corbin Hills and McCanless and won multiple championships at both clubs. She definitely won at Corbin Hills in 1992 and 1994.
“There were trophies randomly stuck in every nook and cranny of her house,” Dr. Leslie said with a chuckle. “She won a lot.”
One of the more prestigious local women’s events in Rowan County was the Edgar Welch Golf Tournament. Mary was on the winning (two-person) team in that event in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2012. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, she was a senior division winner. She probably won in some more years, but those trophies haven’t been located yet.
The Edgar Welch was a two-round tournament played on two courses — Corbin Hills and the Country Club of Salisbury. Mary’s standard teammate was Ruth Bowles. In 1998, they combined for a sizzling 61-61 — 122 to win by two strokes.
Robin and Brett agree Mary’s biggest asset as a golfer was her putting stroke.
“She’d hold the club up vertically to line up a putt, something I’ve never been able to do,” Brett said. “She was an amazing putter.”
McCanless pro Scott Perry told Mary’s family at the visitation that Mary was instrumental in getting his successful tenure at McCanless started.
“If McCanless was trying to put together a tournament, she’d let Scott know that not only would she and Gene be playing, they’d be bringing 10 more couples with them,” Robin Leslie said.
Mary was a force in the famed “McCanless Couples,” a group that began playing in the early 2000s. As many as 20 would play on Sunday afternoons. They’d all turn their scorecards into Mary, the chief scorer, and she’d get the results to the Post on Sunday evenings.
In 2011, when she was 79, Mary shot a 76 in the McCanless Ladies Golf Association fall championship tournament.
Mary and Gene played well as a team in some McCanless events.
Robin Leslie wasn’t as competitive as her mother, but she also played golf with Mary often.
Mary played golf every day that she could for as long as she could. They say she knew every blade of grass on the courses at McCanless and Corbin Hills.
In 2000, for their 50th wedding anniversary, Mary and Gene scratched items off their bucket lists with a cross-country trip. They saw Mount Rushmore, Hollywood, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
Besides golf, Mary was an avid collector of coins. She left boxes of them for her family — four grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to Shiloh United Methodist Church, 234 S. Main St., Granite Quarry, NC 28072.
