Norene M. Carter, 81, died peacefully at Tore’s Home on June 29, 2024.
A native of California, Norene Carter graduated from San Jose State University and received her M.Ed. in child development from Tufts University and her M.A. and Doctor of Ministry degrees from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge MA.
Early in her career, she worked with children and adults with special needs.
In 1973, she adopted her 5-year-old niece and later helped raise another niece.
Following seminary in the late 1990s, Norene served as Director of the Episcopal Divinity School’s Feminist Liberation Theology program. From 2000 until a major stroke curtailed her activities, she served as a United Church of Christ minister in three small rural Vermont churches and as a crisis mental health counselor on the Maine Coast.
Norene moved to Brevard in 2008, where she was active in the NAACP, the Democratic Party, and the Bread of Life. She attended the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Transylvania County. Since 2007, Norene also has been a member of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, based in MA.
Most weeks, Norene could be spotted in her wheelchair at Moral Monday. A lover of good food, classical music, nature — especially water and dogs — and an avid reader of history, she was a passionate advocate of social justice throughout her life. Of herself, Norene wrote, “I have always been a mystic at heart. My life as an activist is inseparable from my life as a Christian.”
She is survived by a daughter in CA, a niece in New York City, a twin brother in New Zealand, a sister in CO, two grandsons, several dear friends in Brevard and New England, and her beloved chihuahua “Tootsie.”
Memorial gifts may be made to “Labor of Love” (a local animal rescue non-profit, who gave Tootsie to her), P.O. Box 392, Horse Shoe, NC 28742; and to the Transylvania County NAACP, P.O. Box 303, Brevard NC 28712.
A memorial service will be held later.
Asheville Mortuary Services is honored to serve the Carter Family.
See original obituary HERE.