Mildred Marie Basnight Tharps made things for people.

She sewed. She embroi dered and crocheted, of ten giving away what she made. She grew things in her garden, made ceramics and cooked for the neigh bors she welcomed into her home. She also cared for people — spending years working with children in hospital nurseries and later becoming a licensed daycare provider, caring for babies and providing after-school care for older children in her home. Those everyday acts of making, feeding and caring stretched across an ex traordinary lifetime.

Tharps, a Plymouth na tive born Nov. 8, 1917, died Aug. 10, 2026, at the age of 108.

For more information, check out the Sept. 9, 2026, edition of the Roanoke Beacon.