Betty Ruffin Garner Carpenter

Betty Ruffin Garner Carpenter, 77, of Morehead City, North Carolina, passed away on Monday, February 12, 2024, at the SECU Jim & Betsy Bryan Hospice Home in Pittsboro.

A memorial service to honor Betty’s life will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, February 24^th at First Methodist Church, officiated by Rev. Sarah Williams. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. Interment will follow at Gethsemane Memorial Park. For those unable to attend, the service can be viewed through her obituary page on Munden Funeral Home’s website. The service will remain on the Funeral Home website for 90 days.

After a valiant battle with Dementia, Betty departed this world to join her late husband, James Carpenter just in time to spend their first Valentine’s Day together in 12 years. 

Born on November 6, 1946, Betty was named after the nurse who delivered her. Betty was the daughter of the late Annie Haskins Garner and Alvin Garner (owner of the Garner Gulf Station which was located in downtown Morehead City).

Betty was a proud Morehead City resident who was raised in her home on Evans Street. She attended her kindergarten through 11th grade years at Charles S. Wallace High School and was the Valedictorian of the first graduating class of West Carteret High School (1965). She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from UNCG, and was one credit shy of her Doctorate in Math.

Throughout her high school years, and also in the summers (during her college years), Betty was a waitress at her Uncle Ted Garner’s Restaurant, the Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant.

After finishing college, she went on to live in Winston-Salem and work in Marketing at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. It was there that she fell in love with her late husband, James S. Carpenter. They were married on September 26, 1981.

Jim lived and traveled all over the world from a young age and when he met Betty, he decided to share this opportunity of traveling with her. Traveling was at the top of the list of things that Betty and Jim enjoyed the most.

On March 6, 1986, Betty and Jim adopted their five-month-old daughter, Ann, from The Children’s Home Society of NC. Betty and Jim introduced Ann to this beautiful world by traveling to many places as well as enjoying Broadway Musicals. 

In 1989, the Carpenters moved from Winston-Salem to Morehead City to raise daughter, Ann. Betty worked at Beam Cooper & Gainey Insurance so that Jim could care for Ann, be involved in her schooling, and serve on PTA and school board. 

Upon Ann’s completion of high school, the Carpenter family again relocated to Winston-Salem as BB&T Insurance (which acquired Beam, Cooper & Gainey) was headquartered there. They remained in Winston-Salem where Jim valiantly fought terminal kidney cancer. Following Jim’s death in 2012, Ann completed her Bachelor’s Degree at Winston Salem State University and in May of 2017, the Carpenter ladies moved back home to Morehead City to be closer to family.

Betty is survived by her daughter, Ann. She was preceded in death by her late husband, Jim; parents, Alvin Garner and Annie Haskins Garner; sister, Ann Garner Sanders who passed away just last year; and niece, Alice Elizabeth Eastman who died at the age of 9 on December 24, 1964.

Special thanks to the Jerry and Ruth Jones Family as well as Jonda Pacillas and the Arosa Care Team for their roles in Betty’s life. 

In lieu of flowers, the family would like donations made to Arosa Crystal Coast, or the State Employees Credit Union (SECU) Jim and Betsy Bryan Hospice Home of UNC Health Care

Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www.mundenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home & Crematory in Morehead City, NC.