Margaret Caryl Pennington
Feb 20, 2026
Margaret Pennington, Durham artist and madwoman, passed away peacefully on February 20th 2026 at the age of 68. She was known for her intelligence, kindness, sense of humor, and disrespect for the laws of man and nature. She spent her life creating art and has enriched the lives of many with her work. She was a valued and beloved member...
Elizabeth Ruth Marling
Feb 17, 2026
Elizabeth Ruth Marling passed away surrounded by love, leaving behind a legacy of faith, service, and devotion to family.
Elizabeth was the beloved wife of Mark Marling, with whom she shared 46 years of marriage. Together they built a life rooted in love, faith, and family. She was a devoted mother to Jason Marling, Jared Marling, John Mark Marling (wife Lesley...
Barbara Ann Matteson
Feb 16, 2026
Barbara Ann Matteson, 81, of Durham, NC, passed away unexpectedly on February 16, 2026.
Barbara was born on April 23, 1944, in Buffalo, NY. She was the daughter of Frederick Charles and Matilda “Tillie” Freida Stroke. She attended and graduated from Buffalo State College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. She began her career as an Art Teacher at Holland Central...
Mary Hirko
Feb 14, 2026
Mary Catherine (Linn) Hirko, 82 years old, passed away on February 14, 2026 in Durham, North Carolina. Mary was born on September 15,1943 in Michigan. She was the oldest female and 7th child of a big boisterous family containing 14 children. She is survived by her son (Andy), daughter (Tammy), and her favorite human in the entire world, her grandson,...
Linda Pacini Pitelka
Feb 11, 2026
Linda Pacini Pitelka, loving spouse, mother, grandmother, scholar, teacher, and voracious reader, died of heart-failure on February 11, 2026, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 78. She passed peacefully and painlessly in her sleep at the UNC hospital in the presence of her husband, Vince Pitelka and their son Morgan and daughter-in-law Brenda. Linda spent her final...
Lura F. Ward
Feb 9, 2026
Mary Lura Fields Ward was born on December 23, 1934, in Lago Colony, Aruba, in the Dutch West Indies, and died on February 9, 2026, at her home in Carrboro, North Carolina, with her family.
Lura always said she swam before she could walk; perhaps it was true. She was more at home in the ocean than on land. Her childhood...
Thomas Michael Dean
Feb 8, 2026
Thomas Michael Dean, affectionately known as "Tonga," was born on July 13, 1985, in Long Island, New York. He peacefully transitioned from this life on February 8, 2026, at UNC Memorial Hospital, leaving behind a legacy defined by kindness, selflessness, and a unique zest for life.
Thomas worked as a manager for Pet Smart in Morganton, North Carolina, where his passion...
Lillian Epstein Weisberg
Feb 8, 2026
LILLIAN EPSTEIN WEISBERG
“To dance is to live, and to live is to dance”.
-Isadora Duncan
Lillian Epstein Weisberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the younger daughter of Clara Barlas Epstein and Max Epstein, Russian-Jewish immigrants who escaped from Tzarist Russia. Lillian grew up in an artistic and intellectually stimulating household. Both of her parents were professional photographers, and her father loved classical...
Veronica Christine Parker
Feb 7, 2026
Veronica was a radiant presence in the lives of all who knew her, a woman of boundless kindness, fierce devotion, and quiet strength.
She has been surrounded by love since learning of her diagnosis of stage four colorectal cancer november 11, 2025.
She passed from this world surrounded by love, leaving behind a family and community forever changed by the light she...
Joanne Bowman Shepherd
Feb 5, 2026
Mary Joanne Bowman Shepherd died peacefully at the age of 92 on February 5th, 2026 in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Joanne was born and raised in Browns Summit, NC, a farming community outside Greensboro, on October 23, 1933 to her parents, Mildred Weaver Bowman and Walter Obadiah Bowman Jr. She completed her nursing degree at Rex Hospital School of Nursing in...