Mrs. Cynthia Wallace Bernart died of coronavirus July 10, 2020, at Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community in Raleigh, N.C. She was born in Newark, N.J., on Aug. 7, 1932.
Her parents were Helen Crandall and Donald F. Wallace. She graduated from Montclair State Teachers’ College High School and then from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1954 with a B.S. degree in nursing. She married William F. Bernart, M.D., in June 1954, then served as a public health nurse in Boston, Mass., for two years.
Moving to Santurce, Puerto Rico, with her husband, she taught obstetrics and pediatrics in the nursing school of the Presbyterian Hospital. In 1957, the couple moved to Charlottesville, Va., where, before the birth of her first son, she worked in the newborn nursery of the University of Virginia Hospital. The family moved to Nassawadox on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in 1958, where the couple remained for 50 years, until they moved to Raleigh in 2008.
Mrs. Bernart was the first female president of Shore Little League, active in the Parent Teacher Association in Northampton County, president of the auxiliary to the Northampton-Accomack Medical Societies, a member of the auxiliary to the hospital and of the hospital’s board of trustees. She was on the Eastern Shore Community College board and was honored as Commencement Marshall in 1989.
Mrs. Bernart was a member of Hungars Episcopal Church and sang in the choir for 40 years. She served the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia as president of the Episcopal Church Women and as a member of the Standing Committee. Mrs. Bernart was on the board of the Eastern Shore Rural Health Systems. She also was a part-time nursing supervisor at Heritage Hall Nursing Home in Nassawadox for 10 years. In 1991, she was named the Outstanding Citizen of the Year by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of Commerce. She enjoyed tennis, knitting, picking up litter along the roadways, and ran in many local 5K races.
Mrs. Bernart was predeceased by Bill, her husband of 62 years. She is survived by her five children: William Bernart and his wife, Cynthia, of Charlotte, N.C., Matthew Bernart and his wife, Elizabeth Hanna, of Jamesville, Sarah Bernart and her husband, Stephen Barnes, of Washington, N.C., Christopher Bernart and his partner, Jose Bravo, of Raleigh and Mexico, and Douglas Bernart, of Hockessin, Del.; one granddaughter and eight grandsons. She is also survived by two of her three older sisters: Jean White of Chatham, N.J., and Jo Ann Davidson, of Westport, Conn.
A memorial service will be held at a later date at Hungars Episcopal Church in Machipongo.
