Gertie Barnes Murray, 82, of Lumberton, NC, passed away Wednesday, September 8, 2021, at her home following a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.  She was born on March 4, 1939 in Lumberton, NC to John Rhodes and Gertrude McNair Barnes.

She graduated salutatorian from Lumberton High School and attended Salem College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Through the course of her extraordinary life, she was an elementary school teacher, small business owner, and manager of a fifth-generation family farm. She was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church in Lumberton, NC where she taught Sunday School for many years. She was happiest swimming in the ocean and being on the beach and spent her last seventy summers doing what she loved at her family's home in Long Beach.

She was predeceased by her parents, her brother, John Rhodes Barnes, Jr., and a daughter, Megan Elizabeth McNair Murray.

She is survived by her sons, Jim Murray and his wife April of Belmont, NC and John Murray and his wife Lisa of Wilmington, NC; and her grandchildren, McNair Murray and John G. Murray, both of Wilmington, NC.

A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at 2:00 PM at First Presbyterian Church, 1002 N. Elm Street in Lumberton, NC.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to: First Presbyterian Church of Lumberton or www.pancan.org .