Carolyn Elizabeth Burnette Ingram passed away on Wednesday, March  9, 2022 at her home.

A Celebration of Life for Carolyn will be held in the Superior Court Room, Duplin County Court House, in Kenansville, on Friday, April 8th, at 2:00 PM.  A reception will follow.

After suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and its complications for several years, God granted the motion of Attorney Carolyn Elizabeth Burnette Ingram, age 75, for a change of venue.  Surrounded by the love of family and friends, at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, March 9,  Carolyn slipped the bonds of this earthly existence, and joined her Heavenly Father in that house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.

Carolyn was born in Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina, on November 25, 1946, and grew up in the small Haywood County town of Clyde.  Coached by her loving uncle, Charles Loyal Dotson, from a very early age Carolyn knew that she wanted to be a lawyer.  With her characteristic determination and self-discipline, she set upon a course to achieve that goal.  Wanting to take Latin and other college preparatory courses, after the eighth grade in Clyde with a class of about 30, to the larger Waynesville Township High School, with a class of about 400.  She was tied for first in her class for four years, graduating in 1965.

Carolyn attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with summer courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in Political Science and in 1969 was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree.  She next matriculated at the Wake Forest University School of Law, where she was the only female in her class, and one of only two in the law school.  Her academic performance led to her selection for the prestigious Law Review, limited to the very top students, and she earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1972.

As has been seen, Carolyn was a pioneer among women in the law.  In 1972, she successfully passed the North Carolina Bar Examination, received her license as an Attorney, and became the first female member of the North Carolina State Bar to clerk in the North Carolina Appellate Courts, when she became research assistant to Judge David Maxwell Britt, later a Justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court.  In 1973, she next became the first female law clerk in the United States District Court, Western District of North Carolina,  where she served Chief Judge Woodrow Wilson Jones.  In 1975, she then became the first female attorney to practice law in Henderson County, North Carolina, when she joined Donald Garren in his private practice.

While visiting her future husband, Charles Marshall Ingram, a native of Kenansville, Duplin County, North Carolina, then a law student at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1976 she met the Dean, who, impressed by her outstanding scholarly record, offered her a position as an Assistant Professor of Law, which she accepted.  At Cumberland, she taught Constitutional Law, Conflicts of Law, and Poverty Law.  Upon Charles' graduation in 1978, they returned to North Carolina, married, and she became the first female member of the law faculty at Campbell University, where she taught Contracts, Family Law, and Trial Advocacy, among other subjects.

After practicing with Charles during her summers, in 1981 Carolyn left Campbell and joined him full time in the private practice of law in Kenansville.  She quickly gravitated to family law, and in 1996 was certified by the North Carolina Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in family law.  All she ever wanted to do was be a lawyer, and serve her clients to the best of her ability.  She got that wish, and enjoyed an active, prominent, and highly successful career.  Although at heart shy and unassuming, she was a zealous advocate for her clients.  Due to her Alzheimer's, she retired at the end of 2020, although continuing to keep her law license active.  She would have been licensed fifty years in August of 2022.

Carolyn and Charles were not only law partners and husband and wife, but they were best friends.  They disagreed on nothing, and enjoyed a happy and exciting marriage, filled with work, travel and service.  A humble person, Carolyn never sought honors, but felt compelled to serve when asked.  One of her proudest accomplishments was serving on and later as Chair of the Duplin County Board of Elections, during which it conducted many elections without significant error.  In 2008, Carolyn was honored by the North Carolina Bar Association, which recognized her contributions and service with its Citizen Lawyer Award.  In 2014, UNCG honored Carolyn with its Distinguished Alumna Award, and that same year she was honored by induction into the Duplin County Hall of Fame.

Carolyn is survived by her loving and adoring husband of 43 years, Charles; brother, Richard Wayne Burnette, and his wife, Betty Jean;  niece Kristen Burnette Seelig, her husband Sam, and their children, Madison and Mason; niece Megan Burnette Quinn, her husband, Jason, and their son Jase; niece Whitney Sprinkle; nephew Matthew Sprinkle and his wife Laura; step-sister Margaret Ann Taylor and her husband Richard; and many close and special friends, all of whom she loved dearly.

Carolyn was preceded in death by her father, Herbert Whitney Burnette, Jr., and her mother, Evelyn Dotson Burnette; stepfather Joseph Edwin Burnette; uncle Charles Loyal Dotson; maternal grandparents, Marvin Wayne Dotson and Zennie Elizabeth Westmoreland Dotson, who reared her; paternal grandparents, Herbert Whitney Burnette and Elizabeth Francis Burnette, who educated her; and half-sister, Denise Sprinkle.

To accommodate burial of Carolyn and Charles together and with their families in Duplin and Haywood Counties, they chose cremation.  Their ashes will be commingled after Charles' death, and half buried with his family in Kenansville and half buried with her family in Clyde.

For the kind and loving care that they provided to Carolyn during her final months, Charles would like to thank their family physician, Dr. Corazon Ngo, and her assistant, Alice Ross, both dear personal friends, and Vidant Home Care and Hospice, particularly  Home Health nurses Shannon Rhodes and Shannon Casteen, Hospice nurses DeAnne Batchelor and Brandi Hamm, and Home Health and Hospice aides Shanda Bass and Mary Carlton.  Also her wonderful private caregiver, Debra Fleming, who was God-sent.

The family is being served by Community Funeral Home of Beulaville.