Cynthia Joan “Maggie” Mosteller, long-time Fairhope resident, known for her generous heart and uplifting spirit, died on June 4, 2022, at her cottage surrounded by family. The Mobile native who’d called Fairhope home for 40 years, was 75 years old.
Born on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1947, Cynthia was the eldest of eight children of Dr. John Horace and Janet Young Mosteller. Her family’s Spanish style house on Old Shell Road was brimming with activity, the Springhill neighborhood the siblings’ playground – riding bikes, playing tennis, swimming. She began her lifelong love of dance, and of singing, performing with brother Johnny in a folk music group, the Greenback Singers. With her family she attended St. Ignatius Catholic Church and graduated from Bishop Toolen High. After starting out at University of Alabama, she graduated with honors from University of South Alabama.
After a stint as a stockbroker, Mosteller turned her focus to community and artistic concerns. She became director of Fairhope’s Marietta Johnson Organic School Museum, explaining the school’s “child-centered” philosophy, even appearing in costume as Johnson for presentations. She supported the arts not only as a collector – her home was filled with the works of area painters and sculptors – but also as a promoter. Dedicated to social causes, she became, as she described it, “town crier for the multi-cultural, non-political Hope Community group, promoting social justice and harmony.”
Throughout her days Mosteller loved to sing a capella, dance freely, spend time with beloved daughters Lauren and Kristin, and her devoted, extended family. Daily she walked on Fairhope Pier, relishing the balmy breezes and stunning sunsets, greeting countless friends and acquaintances. She also enjoyed the mountains and streams of North Carolina and wide-open spaces of Wyoming. Wherever her journey, when she met strangers they didn’t stay that way for long. She gathered monthly with old friends, too, their group having formed, remarkably, way back in kindergarten.
On her porch, by her camellia garden, she’d spend mornings reading, and often sharing, spiritual meditations, including those by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest. Rohr’s words, “God created us for love,” embodied her philosophy.
In recent days, summing up her time, she told her daughters: “Say that the purpose of her life was to love all she encountered.”
She is survived by her daughters, Lauren Carroll (John Holman), of Montrose, and Kristin Carroll (Kurtis Sparrow), of Carbondale, Colorado; sisters Nancy Hoffman (Roy) and Mary Lou Cain (Kenny) of Fairhope, Pauline Danner (Jack) of Panama City, Florida and Barbara Price (Alan) of Orlando, Florida; and brothers Matthew Mosteller (Cathy), of Mobile, and Charles Mosteller (Alexa) of Daphne; numerous, adoring nieces, nephews, and cousins.
She was predeceased by her brother John Horace Mosteller, Jr.; William John Carroll, the father of her children; and husband Graham Timbes.
Memorial Service, Saturday, June 11, 10:30 a.m., outdoors at family home, 7093 Sibley St., Montrose, AL 36659.
Donations to Equal Justice Initiative, Montgomery, or charity of choice.
