Jeanelle C. Moore

Jeanelle Coulter Moore (July 13, 1911 – October 20, 1999) was an American schoolteacher, patron of the arts, and civic leader who, as the wife of Governor Dan K. Moore, served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1965 to 1969. She was the first wife of a governor in North Carolina to have a full-time secretary and maintain her own office in the North Carolina Executive Mansion, and she served as president of the Sir Walter Cabinet while her husband was in office. She was responsible for the creation of the Executive Mansion Fine Arts Committee within the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which provides funding to restore and decorate the official residence, and established a chapel at the Raleigh Correctional Center for Women. Prior to her time as first lady, Moore served as a board member of the North Carolina Fund and of the North Carolina School of the Arts, having been appointed by Governor Terry Sanford. In 1980 she received the North Carolina Award for Public service.

Early life and education Moore was born on July 13, 1911, in Pikeville, Tennessee, to Coy Hixson Coulter and Margaret Colvard Coulter. She attended the University of Tennessee before transferring to Western Carolina Teachers College in Cullowhee, North Carolina, where she received a bachelor's degree in education. She called her first press conference at a luncheon to announce the formation of the Executive Mansion Fine Arts Advisory Committee, which she established to promote awareness for the need of historic preservation and restoration, and fundraise to provide furnishings, decorations and works of art for the official residence. The first meeting was held on November 12, 1965. Around 1968, Moore had the Strauss chandelier, which was donated by Holocaust survivor Karoline Strauss Horowitz, installed in the executive mansion's state dining room. In 1968 she was awarded the Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award by Preservation NC. Moore also drafted plans to relandscape the gardens at the mansion.

She was elected president of the Sir Walter Cabinet, a society open to spouses of North Carolina government officials, while still serving as first lady.

Personal life Moore met her future husband, Daniel Killian Moore, in 1931 while visiting relatives in North Carolina and taking a summer course at Western Carolina Teachers College. She attended a local Methodist church where Moore, an attorney practicing in Sylva, was the sunday school superintendent. She and Moore were married on May 4, 1933. They had two children: Edith Coulter Moore and Daniel Killian Moore, Jr.

Death Moore died on October 20, 1999, in Raleigh. After her death, Governor Jim Hunt eulogized her, saying that "North Carolina has lost one of its strongest advocates of beauty and art." Her funeral was held at Edenton Street United Methodist Church, where she and her family were parishioners. She was buried next to her husband in Historic Oakwood Cemetery.