Former school board member dies; retired attorney Nancy Lightner Wooten was 73. Published in the Winston-Salem Journal on April 24, 2012 Travis Fain writes: Nancy Lightner Wooten a former school board member and well-known attorney with a reputation for frankness in the pursuit of justice, died late last week at the age of 73. She served 16 years on the Winston-Salem Forsyth County school board from 1974 to 1982 and from 1986 until 1994 when fights over the racial makeup of school and the board itself often dominated board politics. She went to college in her 30's and graduated from Wake Forest University Law school at 44, gradually remaking her life after divorce and working multiple jobs to do it as a single mother. She helped found the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, volunteered for years with Piedmont Craftsmen Inc., served 11 years on the board at CenterPoint Human Services and, according to her niece held a brown belt in karate. "She was just always on the go" Kimberley Angel Taffer said Monday. "A mover and a shaker, you wanted something done, you called her." A memorial service is planned for Thursday at 1:00 pm at Salem Funeral Home Chapel, 120 S. Main St., the funeral home said. Wooten retired from her law practice in December. She hoped to "go home and read books and plant flowers" Taffer said, but health issues plagued her final days. A Democrat, Wooten said the unfairness of integrated but unequal school drew her into school board politics in the 1970s, in the early 1990s when the unpopularity of busing led to a renewed push for neighborhood schools, Wooten "always fought for the underdog" former Winston Salem/Forsyth County Schools Superintendent Larry Coble said. "I saw her fighting" Coble said "against re-segregating schools". Wooten was named board chairman in 1992 but she was voted out in 1994 when Republicans dominated local and national elections. She made an unsuccessful run for the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in 1996 and funneled her love for the underdog into her law practice. She defended many teens accused of crimes and parents trying to keep custody of their children, said Janet Pauca, an attorney who shared an office suite with Wooten for 14 years. "She wanted to see justice done," Pauca said. Wooten spoke frankly, but respectfully, in politics, in court and to her clients, said those who knew her. She had grit, they said. She was "remarkable and resilient," according to former District Attorney Warren Sparrow. "There was nothing pretentious about her," Sparrow said. "She soldiered on."