Mother of the Year

It has been decades since Mrs. Esther Hunt Moore of Hickory, N.C., has been actively engaged in rearing her three children. Nonetheless, her devotion to the young has continued unabated through most of her 75 years. An elementary school teacher for 40 years, she was the first black woman to register to vote in her county. After her children had graduated from college, she went on to earn her master's degree from Columbia University at age 64 and to teach mentally retarded children. Last week the American Mothers Committee named Mrs. Moore, a widow, Mother of the Year. She is the second black to receive the award since it was initiated 37 years ago. Mrs. Moore's reaction: "Hallelujah!"

"The reason I feel humbly proud," she said at a luncheon in her honor at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria hotel last week, "is that my immediate family were descendants of slaves. They were actually the persons who instilled faith, faith in God. They believed faith could remove any obstacle to success."

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