Local woman friend of military’s first female four-star general
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
As children, Mary Ann Benca Martinelli and Ann Dunwoody spent summers together in Randolph, N.Y., playing tennis, riding bikes, taking hikes and swimming.
They loved the outdoors. Martinelli marveled at Dunwoody’s athleticism even then.
“She would start the day playing tennis with her mom about 6:30 a.m.,” Martinelli recalls. “Lazy me would be ready to start playing by 10 o’clock.”
Dunwoody and her mother taught Martinelli how to play tennis. At times, they also invited Martinelli to watch Ann and her sister, Susan, in gymnastics. When it rained during those summer days, the girls would play cards or board games inside.
They renewed their friendship every summer for about five years, when the Dunwoodys stayed with Ann’s grandmother in Randolph, Martinelli’s hometown.
Both women ó Mary Ann and Ann ó anticipated teaching physical education as adults, but Dunwoody’s career path took a much different turn after her first two-year hitch as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
She made the military her life’s calling.
On Friday, Dunwoody became the first woman four-star general in U.S military history.
Her summer childhood friend, Martinelli, was there in Washington, D.C., to share in the historic promotion during a ceremony at the Pentagon.
“She was a phenomenal person and my best friend ever,” Martinelli said this past weekend, remembering their days as children. “What incredibly positive people she and her mom were in my life.”
During her couple days in Washington, Martinelli attended all the ceremonies, toured the part of the Pentagon hit by the Sept. 11 terrorists, shared several meals with the Dunwoody family and, before coming home Saturday, was hitting golf balls into the Potomac River from her friend’s house.
Martinelli said it was “an incredible honor” to have been invited and made part of one of the biggest moments in Dunwoody’s life. Now 55, Dunwoody has been “an exceptional leader,” who constantly dealt with the mental and physical stress of being a woman in the male-dominated Army, Martinelli added.
Martinelli went on to become a high school and college teacher and coach. Today she teaches gym and coaches golf at West Rowan High School.
She is a former women’s soccer coach at Catawba College.
The whole Dunwoody family is positive and “rich in moral character,” Martinelli said.
“In my years of coaching and teaching,” she added, “I wish I had remembered what I had been taught by them early on, and that is to encourage, to erase the ‘I can’ts’ with a ‘Sure, you can.’
“That’s my goal for now.”