JoAnne Matthews Starling

Autryville

JoAnne Matthews Starling, age 85, of Autryville, passed away peacefully on July 15, 2026, in the home she made so beautiful and welcoming for over fifty years. She was born on January 4, 1941, in Cumberland County, to the late Cecil Otis and Pauline Williams Matthews. She was the middle child of five who were raised on a produce, tobacco, and cotton farm just west of the South River in Wade.

She attended Central High School, where she served as an officer in numerous student organizations and received multiple accolades including being named the “Best All Around” among her senior class. She also served as senior class president, captain of the basketball team, and was an academic all-star. She went on to the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNC Greensboro), where she completed a largely scholarship-funded degree in home economics education. She was immediately recruited by the Cumberland County School System to teach home economics at Stedman High School. She transferred to Cape Fear High School upon its opening, where she taught until the demands of child rearing and a growing family farming operation required her full-time attention.

She was married for sixty-three years to Murd F. Starling, who served as a fierce advocate for her care during her dementia-driven decline in health. Together, they built a sizeable and widely respected family-farming operation in western Sampson and eastern Cumberland counties. They gave hundreds of local youth their first taste of honest work, all under a cheerful but watchful eye.

She was a patient and loving mother for three hungry boys, William Franklin Starling of Autryville (wife Jennifer), Steven Maxwell Starling of Winterville, and Raymond Albert Starling of Raleigh (wife Tina). She was the proud and doting grandmother of William Robert Starling and Matthew James Starling of Winterville, and Victoria Julian Starling of Raleigh.

First and foremost, JoAnne was a faithful follower and loyal servant of Jesus Christ. Since her childhood, she had been an active member of Clement Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School, served on committees too numerous to count, and to which she hauled a never-ending supply of provisions. She will be remembered for her joyous and generous demeanor, keen intellect, and ceaseless energy. Whether in her home and yard or on the family farm, she was unstoppable. Her family and scores of local tobacco crew members would readily attest to her ability to work circles around those only half or even one-third her age. Her legendary cooking skills bear mentioning separately, as they were perhaps her greatest ministry. Her pitch-perfect biscuits anchored many meals, and her cakes were almost always the first to disappear from respectable dessert tables.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her eldest brother Cecil Dwight Matthews, and youngest brother Bobby Brantley Matthews. In addition to her husband, children, and grandchildren, she is survived by her elder brother Albert Branson (“A.B.”) Matthews (widower of Ruth Mary Matthews) and her younger sister Donna Williams (husband Jim).

Like others who have found themselves in the same position, the family has difficulty completely expressing their heartfelt gratitude to the tireless and patient caregivers who loved JoAnne as if she was their own. They can never be fully repaid.

A simple graveside service is planned in the Starling Family Cemetery, located near 478 South River Road in Autryville, Saturday, July 18th, at 9:00 AM. In lieu of flowers, memorials in her honor may be made to Clement Baptist Church, 6020 Maxwell Rd, Autryville, NC 28318. 

Services entrusted to Butler Funeral Home, 6535 Clinton Road, Stedman, NC 28391.