By Brooke Parker
Staff Writer
Although she has been retired from teaching in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools for 20 years, Catharyne Jones Butler continues to give back to the community in new ways.
“I am still trying to keep my mind sharp,†Butler says.
Born and raised in Cumberland County as the youngest of seven children, Butler graduated at the top of her high school class and furthered her education at Fayetteville State Teachers College. She and her husband, Ray Allen Butler – who she met when she was 9 years old – married in 1956. They became proud parents of two daughters, Kym Butler-James and Keva Butler-Towns, and now have three grandchildren.

But beyond her own family, Butler has certainly made a difference in the lives of a number of children – many of them now grown – in this community.
At the age of 21, Butler was hired to work in the public schools in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, which were still segregated at the time. During integration, Butler was assigned to Carrboro Elementary School, where she taught third, fifth and sixth grade for 13 years. She would remain an educator within the district for 35 years.
“I love kids, I really do,†Butler says. “I love school too. I hated when the summer came and I couldn’t go to school.â€
Butler – who has taught more than 1,000 children – believes that all of her students need to be inspired and encouraged to continue their education.
Both inside and outside the classroom, Butler took a special interest in her students, always trying to convey a particular message.
“Yes, you are worthwhile, and somebody thinks so,†Butler says.
Cleveland Suitt, one of Butler’s former third-grade students, spent many afternoons helping Butler organize woodpiles in her backyard for the money he needed to buy basic necessities – things he needed but wouldn’t have been able to purchase without her help.
In those afternoons, Butler taught Suitt that he had to work hard for what he got. “Everything costs something – nothing is free,†Suitt says.
“I pride myself on helping people the way she helped me,†he continues. Suitt, now 45, works for the American Residential Services, where he says he does just about everything from water purification to heating and ventilation. Suitt feels that he would not be as successful as he is today without Butler’s guidance.
“She is one of the reasons people know my name in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Durham,†he says.
‘Woman of distinction’
Butler says she loved every moment of her work within the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools. She left the classroom in 1980 to serve at the Lincoln Center – the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools central office – as the district’s community liaison for low achievers. Having retired in 1992, she remains active in the community, her church and the schools.
“I find myself busier now than I have ever been,†Butler says.
After retirement, Butler found her way back into teaching when she noticed a need for substitute teachers and tutoring in the community. She continues to tutor, take care of her grandchildren, plan weddings and be actively involved in the church, still taking the same special interest in helping members of the community as she did as a teacher.
At First Baptist Church in Chapel Hill – where she has been a member since April 1968 – Butler started the “Seeds of Faith†ministry for youth and served on multiple committees. She currently serves as chair of the deacons’ ministry, assistant treasurer, chair of the pastor’s appreciation committee, secretary of the ladies aid feeding ministry, is a member of the senior missionary circle and a member of the Sunday School and noonday prayer groups.
Rev. Josephine Harris – who also worked closely with Butler in the schools system – speaks highly of Butler.
“She continues to provide leadership that is encouraging and motivating,†Harris says.
“Wherever she has been, she has risen to the top. She has a gift, and she continues to teach in her own way.â€
Harris says she feels fortunate to work with someone she calls “a woman of distinction.â€
In the community
Praise for Butler’s work extends into the community. Cliff Collins of Cliff’s Meat Market knows Butler as a regular customer, but also as a respected woman in the community.
“She’s always doing something to better someone else,†Collins says. “She’s someone who just glows.â€
Butler has served on the board of directors of the United Way and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Public School Foundation. She has volunteered as a mentor for the Orange County Department of Social Services, working with teenage mothers. She has been a member and president of the Women of Distinction.
Butler says she has always felt a desire to give back to the community.
“The community had been good to us all of these years, and I was raised in a house where my mother was always helping others,†she says.
Her family, Butler says, was one that believed in service to others, and she needed to continue that tradition – something she certainly did.
As a caregiver, educator and leader within the community, Butler’s giving nature inspires the people around her.