In It Together: Martha Sue Hall Emphasizes Support Through Connection

It was a parade of emotions for a group of second graders gathered for swimming lessons in the Albemarle YMCA’s large pool—some in the water performing guided techniques with splashy exhilaration and laughter; others nervously at the perimeter, not fans of the depths and occasionally tearful over the pressure to get in. And so, for the latter, it was on the understanding tone and encouragement of their instructors to ease nerves, tell the kids they’d be with them all the way, and prove the wins of effort together.

One apprehensive girl spent several minutes in mental warm-up at the pool’s edge before she summoned the courage and eased into the water amid loud cheers of peer support. Her confidence grew, a smile took over, and she completed her challenge without issue. With her at every move was an instructor who’d been with the swim program since its inception there—Martha Sue Hall, in one of her myriad volunteer and service positions. Hall, smiling just as much as the girl, said it’s the chance to give younger generations a good future that encourages her. And that extends to her more public-facing roles, too.

Hall, Albemarle’s mayor pro tem and 2025-26 president of the N.C. League of Municipalities, has often cited younger generations in defining her call to serve, including with the city council she joined in 2003. “The day that I was sworn in, the challenge then was to get youth involved, either collectively as a council or as an individual,” she said. Her election to council came after several years on the Stanley County Board of Commissioners (its first woman elected) and a career with the Administrative Office of the Courts amid numerous other public service positions, including with the State Child Fatality Task Force and the Guardian ad Litem program, both of which focus on brighter outcomes for kids.

“That’s who we’re doing all this for,” Hall said earlier in the day as Southern City tagged along for a recent day-in-the-life that covered different angles of her longtime leadership and style. She centers it on people and empowerment through giving back, avoiding fluff distractions and being intentional with the limited time we have. “There used to be a saying that in a hundred years it’s not going to make any difference how much money you made, where you went to church, what you drove, what you wore; the difference is going to be if you made the difference in the life of a child.”

Hall sees success in the more personal approach to that, and not just with children’s lives. In a world where connection and messaging are increasingly of the digital kind, Hall said there’s no match for getting out into the world, absorbing real contexts, having in-person conversations and appreciating the varying ways people live and serve. During an interview at Albemarle City Hall, Hall consulted her day planner—not an automated phone app, but a physical calendar book—with nearly every date inked for events, services and activities, including swim lessons, church choir leadership and the League’s then-in-progress Town & State Dinner series that brought municipal and legislative leaders together in different regions around the state for bread-breaking, conversation and development of good working relationships.

Long active with the League and a past member of its Risk Management Services Board of Trustees, Hall began her yearlong League presidency in 2025 and took on a statewide letter-writing campaign to fellow local government officials to boost connection and communication. That campaign was substantial for Hall, and not just with the time investment. In organizing her outreach county-by-county, and in frequently visiting each region on League business, she identified with the fact that, as varied as our locales and lifestyles can be, we relate in realizing our common needs and listening to the nuance in one another. But we need actual connection to get that, which takes commitment.

“That is the role that I’ve seen myself in this year,” Hall said looking back on her presidential term. “The past 30 years have prepared me for this year. I’ve put a lot of miles on that car … and I always go to the town halls wherever I go.”

She added: “I hope that wherever I have been, and the time that I’ve spent, wherever it’s been, that people have felt part of something larger.”

While the personal approach delivers for Hall, the time-consuming part of it sometimes stops her in wonder over whether she’s spent her time wisely, followed the right track or moved on the right opportunities in life.

“Is this where I’m supposed to be right now?” she posed, noting there were times when she was essentially looking for a message in a bottle or a guiding note from the sky, folded into a paper airplane that would land at her feet. Which ended up happening, in a sense. Often accompanying Hall
at different events is her husband, Dan Samples, a retired airline pilot, whom she praises as the most supportive spouse imaginable. Hall said a church minister once told her, “You prayed for a paper airplane, and He sent you a pilot.” 

Basically, suggested Hall, life is so layered and composited, but if you sincerely are working toward the good, love people, care for the kids and stay open to what the world has to say, then even those down and confusing times are part of a rewarding path, which occasionally comes clear. “It’s interesting when we learn we’re right where we’re supposed to be,” she said.

In Albemarle, Hall is clearly a well-known and well-regarded face, evidenced by the many hellos and chats that came her way from locals in different corners of the city, from city hall to a nearby eatery to the Pfeiffer University Center of Health Sciences building downtown, where classes were in session as Southern City visited, and at the local Y, where the afternoon swimming lessons were getting underway.

The second graders there spent about an hour going through the day’s exercises, focused on individual and peer safety in the water, for both practical experience and general confidence. The go-getter kids did a great job, and so did the visibly anxious ones.

Toward the end, a smiling student asked Hall when her next teaching day was. Hall answered and then asked the girl what she learned during that day’s lesson, to which the girl described how to float on one’s back, a key water-safety move that Hall said she always highlights for the kids.

“We all can float at times in our lives,” said Hall. “That whole idea of swimming lessons, to me, has been good for me. How this all fits into my role as president—oh my golly.”

She thought for a minute and remembered what she said to a colleague who recently asked her what the biggest takeaway has been from her year in League’s top member role.

“Local municipal elected officials are closest to the people,” Hall said. “People want to be heard. Sometimes you can help fix what’s there. But the thing that has really blown my mind is that behind every face is somebody’s story. Sad or happy. Struggle or no struggle.”

Individual local governments, too, are always working through new struggles, challenges to overcome, standards to train for and adjustments to learn.

“But the flipside to that,” said Hall, “is none of us have to do it alone. We’re all in this thing together.”