Creator of NC Maritime Museum at Southport leaves a lasting legacy

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — She is known as a fixture in Southport and now she is hanging up her keys. Mary Strickland, the woman who built the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport from the ground up is retiring.

For 30 years, Strickland has lived and breathed the museum life.

“It was her and her husband Wayne who build exhibits and put in lighting and raise money, and knocked on doors, and made friends with everyone,” NC Maritime Museum at Southport Curator of Education, Lori Sanderlin said. “And to show them how important our maritime history and culture is.”

In the late 1980s Strickland, her husband, and a group of stakeholders hoped to bring the economy back to Southport so they built a museum.

“We opened our doors in 1992. Small museum, no one paid, we were all volunteers. We did the work ourselves,” Strickland said. “We did all of the collecting, the researching, recording, the teaching.”

It all began with 12 exhibits made out of items collected from people across the city.

“We started to go door-to-door to see what people had under their front porch and out in the garage,” Strickland said.

Since then, the museum has turned into much, much more. Her work has brought so many across the state so much joy. It is something she says would not be possible without the community and those who have helped her along the way.

“It’s the people of the town that have made this happen,” Strickland said. “And the whole community and the county too, they supported us when it looked like a no go all along the way.”

Even during the hard times, Stickland never gave up.

The museum is not the only thing she has done to help others.

“She’s done so much for the community,” Sanderlin said. “She’s started the rescue squad, she worked with the airport to build an airport in the area, she was an Alderman for the city, she had a dream to have a museum and she did it!”

Strickland retires Saturday, December 30, and said the first thing she plans to do is relax.

“Loving my freedom,” Strickland said.

Strickland plans to volunteer at the museum in the future.

As for her replacement, that is in the state’s hands now. Southport’s mayor is declaring Saturday “Mary Strickland Day” in honor of her retirement.