Richard Lee Carter

Richard Lee Carter, 93 of Greensboro, NC, passed away on Friday February 20th while surrounded by loving relatives. The eldest son of Howard Cecil " Buddy" Carter of Leaksville (currently Eden) NC and Virginia "Doll" Smith-Carter of Stoneville, NC. He was born in 1932 in Leaksville, and was the grandson of Winston Marshall Carter and Ida Sue Crews-Carter.

Richard attended Burton Grove Elementary School in the late 1930s and 1940s where he obtained a good education and an appreciation of his country’s history and Christian foundations. He later attended Leaksville High School where he lettered in football, baseball and basketball. He was a member of coach Ray Rhodes 1949 State Championship basketball team that also won the Winston-Salem N.C. Journal and Sentinel Basketball Tournament.

Richard later met and courted Nellie Maye Shelton, daughter of Carroll and Ila Shelton of Spray, N.C. The two were married for 74 years and created three loving children, Kenneth, William and Deborah.

Richard and Nellie moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where Richard attended basic training in the U.S. Navy later being stationed at the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. Richard served on 4 different Naval destroyers and an aircraft carrier. Richard later used his V.A. benefits to attend Elon College, where he graduated in 1957 and majored in US history and government. He was the first member of his family to attend college.

He had a love for the game of baseball and played on various minor league teams in the Tobacco State League, where he once pitched the deciding game of the Tobacco State Championship. He used to say, “Nobody can ever take that victory away from me.”

Richard later taught and coached at Fair Bluff, NC. High School, at Glenn High School in Kernersville, NC and at Jamestown Junior High where he and assistants Richard and Russell Busick had a championship team in the 1970s.

Richard tried to make history come alive for his students by doing things like renting a movie theatre in High Point and having all his students view movies like "Dr Zhivago,” the story of people trapped in the violence and tragedy of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

As a Head Coach at Jamestown, he would always let the second-string players (all of them) get playing time, rather than running up the score on the other team. Once he suspended the entire first team for 3 games, for stealing soft drinks and candy bars from the teachers’ lounge, because setting a moral example was more important than winning football games.

Richard was a member of Glenwood Friends Church in Greensboro where he enjoyed the fellowship of many lifelong Christians.

Richard loved to attend the baseball games at Memorial Stadium in Greensboro to see the Greensboro Yankees in action. He had a long and happy retirement. Richard L. Carter, was a real American. He truly loved his country and was concerned about the moral decline of our nation. He was the type of man that great nations are made of. He never shirked a task.... his word was his bond. One can only imagine now the thrill he is having in seeing all his old childhood friends from Leaksville again and all his friends who passed before him from his church.

Richard is survived by his wife Nellie Carter of Greensboro, two sons Kenneth (Janet) Carter of Loris, SC and William (Natalya) Carter of Clover, SC and daughter Deborah Carter Williams (David) of Las Vegas NV, and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, brother John Marshall Carter (Pamela) of Conyers, GA.

A service will be held at Glenwood Church, located at 2400 Old Chapman Street: Greensboro, NC at 10 AM Wednesday February 25, followed by burial at Lawson Cemetery in Eden, NC at 3 PM with military honors. Fair Funeral Home in Eden, NC is in charge of arrangements.