Birth Date: 10/16/1934
Deceased Date: 08/14/2023
Jeremiah Judson Carter Sr. (Jere) passed away peacefully, at home, with his children at his side on Monday, August 14, 2023.
Jere was born to Margaret and Judson Carter on October 16, 1934, in their family home in Woodland, North Carolina. As the eldest of two children, he grew up on a farm, where he developed a love for nature and animals. After high school, Jere joined the US Air Force where he served as an F-4 Fighter Pilot. He married Rena G. McElhannon of Dallas Texas and together they had 5 children. Just prior to his retirement from the Air Force in the early 1970s, Jere and his family settled in Smithfield North Carolina.
With aviation as Jere’s first love and passion, following his military service, he went on to enjoy work as a private corporate pilot and a private pilot instructor. Later, he also did a bit of long- distance truck driving and enjoyed a few other miscellaneous income producing activities. Even in retirement, he “piddled and tinkered” daily, serving as the family’s “Jack of all trades”.
He was a relatively private individual, naturally inquisitive, and keenly intelligent. He was a principled man of integrity. His canine companions were as dear to him as the people he loved. He was good-humored and genuinely kind. He taught his kids to assemble and fly model air planes. They fished and went camping, and he read bedtime stories until the children insisted, they were “too grown” for that. He was active in the boy scouts with both of his sons. In retirement he was an avid reader and he enjoyed weekend boating at the coast.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Rena G. Carter in 2016, he is survived by his sister, Lillian Caldwell and her spouse of Colorado; daughter, Lynn Harrell and her spouse of Charlotte, NC, Jennifer Ray and her spouse of Charlotte, NC, daughter, Kimberly Carter of Smithfield, son, Jay Carter of Wilmington, NC, and son, Christopher (Charlie) Carter and his spouse of Smithfield, NC. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
At Jere’s request, no service was held. Jere’s ashes, along with those who have predeceased him, will be lovingly placed beneath a memorial marker in a designated space on the family farm. Those who remember Jere and wish to honor his life may choose to make a donation to the Johnston Home Health and Hospice organization, to whom the Carter family is forever grateful.
