Judy Harry Carpenter, 80, a resident of Rutledge, Alabama, passed away peacefully in her home, while surrounded by her family, on Friday, August 25th, 2023. Funeral services for Judy will be held at 12 PM on Tuesday, August 29th, from the Chapel of Morrison Funeral Home in Cherokee, Alabama with Rev. Rudy Guess officiating. Interment will follow in Barton Cemetery with Turners Funeral Home of Luverne directing. The family will receive friends in Luverne at the funeral home on Sunday, August 27th, from 5 to 7 PM. They will receive friends in Cherokee at Morrison’s on Tuesday for an hour prior to the service.
Judy excelled during her years at Sylacauga High School, both academically and socially. Her senior year she was voted Homecoming Queen by her fellow students and then graduated with top marks at the end of the school year. She then went on to Alverson Draughon Business School in Birmingham to hone her secretarial skills for the job market. However, not long after graduating from the program, she met and married the love of her life, Louis H. Carpenter III. They would eventually move to Rutledge where they proceeded to raise a bevy of boys, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way. Judy was built to be a “boy mom.” She had the patience, fortitude, capacity for forgiveness, and tolerance for shenanigans that any mom outnumbered in a house full of the male species required to survive. Judy didn’t just survive those years though, she thrived in them. She was certainly smart enough to know how to keep them all occupied with numerous activities, but she wasn’t the type to send her kids off to do something without her. No, Judy was a Cub Den Mother in Rutledge when they were in the Boy Scouts, and she later became extremely involved and active with the Luverne High School Band Boosters. Her boys knew what it was like to be truly loved and cared for, and that was the most important part of her life.
After their move to Rutledge, Judy found her true calling in education, specifically as a kindergarten teacher’s aide. She worked for a few years at Highland Home, but the bulk of her 26 years in service was at Luverne Elementary School. The thousands of lives she touched during those years is nearly incalculable, but giving her time and attention to children when they needed it the most, as they first left the nests of their home to enter public education, was undoubtedly a blessing in their lives. Children are shaped almost as much by their educators as they are by the families, so Judy’s work was a true service to not only her community but also the world at large. In her free time, she loved to shop, especially at any good yard sale she could find. She also thoroughly enjoyed tending to her beautiful flower beds, and was even known to dabble in a little painting from time to time, at which she was quite talented. Judy was also a woman who most definitely knew her own mind and had the strength to see it through, no matter what. Her favorite thing in the world, however, was simply being “Nana” to her precious grandchildren. She cherished every moment she spent with them, as she did those with her entire family. Words cannot properly express how much they will all miss her, but comfort may be found not only in their memories together, but in knowing she left the world a better place than when she found it.
Judy was preceded in death by her son, Joel Carpenter, and parents, Emmett & Laverne Conn Harry. She is survived by her beloved husband of 59 years, Louis H. Carpenter; their sons, Alan (Traci) Carpenter, Kelly Carpenter, and Jeffrey (Cheryl) Harry; grandchildren, Belle Carpenter, Colton Carpenter, and Bethany Harry; and great-grandchildren, Riata Carpenter and LariAnne Brindley Carpenter.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations instead be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at act.alz.org.
