The Rev. Mitzi McAlexander Noble

February 6, 1941 — April 18, 2026

Smith Mountain Lake

The Rev. Mitzi McAlexander Noble of Smith Mountain Lake, Franklin County, Virginia, passed away peacefully at Roanoke Memorial Hospital on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at the age of 85. She is reunited with her beloved husband of 68 years, Dr. Paul B. Noble, who preceded her in death in August 2025.

Born February 6, 1941, in Kingsport, Tennessee, Mitzi grew up in Bluff City, Tennessee, and Roanoke, Virginia, where she was known from her earliest years as a singer, a leader, and a person of deep faith. She began singing in church at the age of three and never stopped. At Bluff City High School she was active in music, women’s sports, and cheerleading, and helped create a Youth Retreat near her home church. After her family relocated to Roanoke, she attended Cave Spring High School in its very first year, representing the school as Roanoke Snow Queen in 1956 and Vinton’s Dogwood Festival Queen in 1957, before graduating from Jefferson High School.

On June 29, 1957, she married Paul Noble, her music teacher. The two went on to build a life together of remarkable breadth and shared purpose. They moved to Winchester, Virginia, in 1965 when Paul joined the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, and together they built a thriving family of enterprises. Mitzi served as General Manager of their travel businesses — Noble’s TravelWorld and Educational Tour Consultants, Inc. — growing the operation to a staff of 40 people and, at its height, serving the travel needs of one in six American schools. She designed and supervised the business systems, trained all employees, and helped create music festivals and educational tours across the United States and throughout the world. Mitzi and Paul took great pride in the fact that their sons, Mike and Jim, were immersed in the family businesses, too.

In 1980 the Nobles organized tours to nine developing countries for the Christian Children’s Fund, enabling American sponsors to visit their sponsored children in their home countries — an experience that profoundly shaped Mitzi’s understanding of global community and the church’s calling in the world.

At the same time, Mitzi was a fixture in Winchester civic life. She was a founding Chair of the Winchester Downtown Development Board and served on the Shenandoah University Business School Management Advisory Committee. She performed leading roles in professional and semi-professional music theatre productions, including The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, Mame, Anything Goes, Little Me, and I Do, I Do! at Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Virginia.

In 1984, after a year of prayer and reflection, Mitzi answered a call to ordained ministry. She studied at Shepherd College, Wesley Theological Seminary, Howard University School of Divinity, and The General Theological Seminary in New York City, from which she graduated in 1990 with a Master of Divinity degree and became an Episcopal priest.

Her ministry took her to parishes in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Long Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., serving at St. John’s of Lattingtown in Locust Valley, New York; Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock, Connecticut; and churches throughout the Washington and Maryland area, including Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Germantown, Church of the Holy Comforter, St. Barnabas’ Church of the Deaf, and Church of the Atonement. She served as Episcopal Chaplain at Gallaudet University and was beloved for her work bridging communities of different races, abilities, and backgrounds.

After retiring to Smith Mountain Lake in 2006 to care for her parents, she continued to serve as Supply Clergy in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, most recently at All Saints’ Episcopal Fellowship in Lynchburg and in Clifford and Chatham, Virginia.

Mitzi’s ministry was grounded in the conviction that God’s love must guide every decision and action, and that the Church exists to welcome all people as members of one family across time and place. She believed in the Communion of Saints, where past, present, and future are held together in Christ’s love, and she shaped every congregation she served with that expansive, generous theology.

In addition to her husband, Paul, Mitzi was preceded in death by her parents, Ruby Hodges McAlexander and Buren McAlexander.

She is survived by her two sons: Michael Buren Noble of Middletown, Virginia, and his children Nicole, Erica, and Shawn; and James Benjamin Noble of Frederick, Maryland, and his son Jackson; five great-grandchildren: Olivia, Santiago, Corinne, Johnny, and Gail; her sister, Patricia Hunt, and niece Ashley Mireles, both of Jacksonville, Florida; dear friends Betsy Hague of Bethesda, Maryland, and Robin Frey Menefee of Lake Frederick, Virginia; caregivers Jennifer Martin and April Martin; and the many beloved cousins, extended family, friends, and parishioners and communities whose lives she touched across six decades of ministry and service.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. at the Chapel of Devotion, Mountain View Memorial Park, 5970 Grassy Hill Road, Boones Mill, Virginia 24065.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for donations made to Shenandoah Conservatory in Mitzi’s name.

Arrangements by Flora Funeral Service and Cremation Center, Rocky Mount – Smith Mountain Lake.

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