Margaret Rose Sanford | |
|---|---|
 Sanford in 1980 | |
| First Lady of North Carolina | |
| Assumed role January 5, 1961 – January 8, 1965 | |
| Governor | Terry Sanford |
| Preceded by | Martha Blakeney Hodges |
| Succeeded by | Jeanelle C. Moore |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Margaret Rose Knight June 6, 1918 Hopkinsville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | August 26, 2006 (aged 88) Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Resting place | Duke University Chapel |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | John Richard Knight IV Elizabeth Adams Foard |
| Education | Christian College University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Occupation | teacher, philanthropist |
Margaret Rose Sanford (née Knight; June 6, 1918 – August 26, 2006) was an American civic leader, teacher, and philanthropist who, as the wife of Terry Sanford, served as First Lady of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965. Prior to entering public life, she worked as a teacher in North Carolina and Kentucky. As first lady, Sanford hosted the first annual North Carolina Symphony Ball in 1961, established a library of North Carolinian books at the North Carolina Executive Mansion, and planted a rose garden on the mansion's grounds. She was the first governor's wife to decorate the Governor's Western Residence in Asheville. Sanford sent her children to the first racially integrated public elementary school in Raleigh, North Carolina, while the family lived in the executive mansion. She served on the board of the Methodist Home for Children, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Stagville Plantation Restoration Board, and East Carolina University. She was also a member of the Education Commission of the States and the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. While Sanford's husband served as president of Duke University, she was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve on a delegation of university faculty and administrators to China in 1975.