What greater remembrance can any of us hope for than “teacher”?

Martha Butcher Skelton, a Vicksburg treasure who died Tuesday, was known across America for her personal work as a quilter, a domestic craft in which she transformed fabric into art. It was not only her skill, but the sharing of her skill, that friends remembered most and for which she will always be honored.

Quilting in American history is both a solo and a shared practice. Individuals can create bedcoverings, often from scraps, and by following a pattern. As a social event, friends merge their talents, learning from each other. A slight woman who was born in West Virginia, grew up in Kansas and earned two university degrees before moving to Vicksburg in 1947, Martha Skelton possessed an intellect that, like her handwork, was finely tuned, unfailingly precise. But the twinkle in her eye reflected gentleness and patience, too. For those wanting to learn, she had all the time in the world. “She would teach anytime she was asked to teach,” said Cay Jones, a fellow member of the Mississippi Quilters Association.

Honors came for Mrs. Skelton — twice selected for the Smithsonian’s American Folklife exhibits, showings in a New York museum and in a traveling Family Circle exhibition. A 176-page book solely devoted to her art, “Martha Skelton, Master Quilter of Mississippi,” was released this year by University Press.

But she didn’t change one iota. Always ready to share.

In that way she represented a transcendent American quality, much to be admired, and, like quilting, very much worthy of perpetuating.

Walt Grayson, noted for documenting much of what makes Mississippi a special place, wrote the foreword to the book about Skelton. “Martha Skelton creates for us to see with our eyes in the material world the fine art that is a quilt, which we already feel in the spirit world of imagination, and sacrifice and family love,” was his conclusion.

True. And she was a teacher who enriched us all.