Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Magdalene Margaret Carney
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MAGDALENE MARGARET CARNEY
1929—1991
Upon the passing of Magdalene Carney on 10 October 1991, in Haifa, Israel, the Universal House of Justice sent the following cable to a11Nationa1 Spiritual Assemblies:
DEEPLY GRIEVED SUDDEN PASSING STALWART MAIDSERVANT BAHA’U’LLAH MEMBER INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTRE MAGDALENE M. CARNEY. HER WELL NIGH THREE DECADES UNBROKEN SERVICE CAUSE GOD EXERTED IMMENSE INFLUENCE TEACHING WORK SOUTHERN REGION UNITED STATES, INVOLVED THIRTEEN YEARS MEMBERSHIP NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY THAT COUNTRY UNTIL HER APPOINTMENT IN 1983 TO INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTRE. INDOMITABLE FAITH, UNSWERVING DEVOTION COVENANT, SELFLESS SPIRIT, OPEN CANDOUR, WHOLEHEARTED COMNHTMENT EDUCATION CHILDREN AND YOUTH ARE AMONG QUALITIES THAT WILL EVER BE ASSOCIATED WITH GOLDEN MEMORIES HER HIGHLY ACTIVE LIFE. ARDENTLY PRAYING HOLY THRESHOLD PROGRESS HER STERLING SOUL THROUGHOUT DIVINE WORLDS. ADVISE HOLD MEMORIAL SERVICES HER HONOUR ALL HOUSES WORSHIP AND IN BAHA’I COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT WORLD.
Magdalene Margaret Carney, affectionately known as “Mag”, was born on 19 October 1929 in Ringold, Tennessee. Her parents were Herbert and Sallie Lisenby Carney, and all eight of their children were delivered
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Magdalene Carney
at home by a family physician with the assistance of a mid-wife or close relatives. As the eldest of the children, Mag was pressed into service at an early age to help raise her brothers and sisters and assist her parents with every aspect of running their farm. She wrote:
My parents placed a weighty responsibility on me early on. They expected me to set the proper example for my brothers and sisters in all matters pertaining to moral and wholesome living.
While she was still quite young Mag displayed determination to obtain an education. She wrote: “I privately vowed to educate myself so that I would be able to increase our resources and thereby give our family a little relief from dire poverty.” One time, she was determined to go to school despite a blizzard so her father 1ifted her up onto a farm horse, wrapped her feet and legs in burlap bags to protect her against frostbite, and off she rode into the snow storm. She made it.
She excelled in her studies, graduating from Burt High School in Clarksville,
THE Bahá’í WORLD
Tennessee, with highest honors. In 1953, she graduated magna cum laude from Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University in Nashville, with majors in English and Spanish and minors in Speech and Drama. She taught in elementary and high schools in Nashville for 15 years, and served as chair .man of the English Department of Cameron
High School. In 1967, she completed a master of arts degree at George Peabody College in Nashville, majoring in Education and English.
Mag became a member of the American Bahá’í community during the summer of 1962 after meeting Dr. Sarah Martin Pereira, then Professor of Romance Languages at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Dr. Pereira gave Mag a pamphlet, Modem Religion for Modern Man, that summarized the purpose of religion, outlined the essential features of a new religious system being established in the world, and invited the reader to investigate its tenets. Mag said, “By the time I finished reading, Ibelieved in the new system: the Bahá’í Faith. Unimaginable joy flooded my heart!” That flood of joy was extensively spread throughout the southern United States as Mag became an indefatigable teacher of the Cause that she embraced wholeheartedly and unreservedly.
Over the next three decades, she served the Bahá’í Faith in many capacities on local, national, and international levels. She served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Nashville for several years, and in 1968 she was appointed to the National Teaching Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States. In 1969, she was appointed to the Deep South Committee and was elected to serve as its secretary, and in 1970, when the Southern Office of the National Teaching Committee was opened, she became its administrative assistant.
During this time, from 1969 to 1971, she served as Chairman of the Rogers High School English Depaitment in Canton, Mississippi, and in 1969 she coordinated a successful desegregation program in the
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IN MEMORIAM
Canton Public School system at the high school level. Her excellence in education was recognized with a Ford Fellowship in Educational Leadership which enabled her to work towards a doctorate in education from 1972 to 1977, and she received her Doctor of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1977. Mag’s professional interests included the role of ideals in human development, emotional development, the education of children, and the education of competent and compassionate teachers.
On 13 November 1970, Dr. Carney was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, in a by-election. She served continuously on the National Spiritual Assembly for 13 consecutive years, and from 1978 to 1983 she served as full-time Assistant Secretaiy of the National Spiritual Assembly in Wilmette, Illinois. In 1983, she was appointed to serve as one ‘of the Counsellor members of the International Teaching Centre at the Bahá’í World Centre, and moved to Haifa, Israel.
Throughout her many years of service to the Faith, Magdalene Carney travelled extensively in the United States, especially the southern states. Once she was appointed to the International Teaching Centre, she was called upon to travel worldwide and Visited the Bahamas, Canada, Finland, the Gambia, Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.
Mag radiated such warmth and friendliness that everyone who met her immediately felt at home and at ease with her. Her abundant love brought out the best in people, especially young people. She adored children and youth and showed great affection for them. Her marvelous sense of hufnor brightened many a gathering. Her deep knowledge of the Bahá’í Writings and of education enriched every consultation. She maintained a voluminous correspondence with Bahá’ís all over the world. For nearly three decades, she was a leader in race unity.
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She was a true friend. Above all, she encouraged the friends to arise to teach the Faith. DR. BETH BOWEN