Lucy Mae Lane White

   Lucy Mae Lane White, 96, of 708 South Church Street, Hertford, NC, passed away peacefully early Sunday morning, September 11, 2016, in her home with her best friend, daughter, and caregiver, Linda White Owens by her side. She had fought a long battle with congestive heart failure.

   Mrs. White was born in Perquimans County on February 7, 1920, and was the daughter of the late Charlie Robert and Julia Chappell Lane. She grew up at the family home place on the Albemarle Sound, an area now developed and known as Albemarle Plantation. There she enjoyed a childhood living off the land, fishing, farming, and hard work. A member of Bethel Baptist Church, she was sweet and caring with a keen sense of humor and was loved by everyone who ever had contact with her. A hard worker, she complained less than anyone her family had ever known. Always satisfied with what she had, and not wanting for material things, she loved to garden, and tend to her "should have been award-winning" beautiful roses. The former co-owner of the Cherokee Restaurant in Hertford, she had also worked through the years in many other area eateries. This well known passion of cooking led others to never leave her home hungry. In her day she would bake between 30 and 50 cakes and pies in the holiday season for people, a seemingly impossible feat given her circumstances and small kitchen. She loved to talk about what the next meal would be even before leaving the current meal, and later did that out loud in her dreams, right up to the end.

   In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, William Edward White; by sisters, Emily Long, Julia Elliott, and Mary Long; and by brothers, Walton and Winston Lane.

   Surviving are her daughters, Linda White Owens, and Betty White Lawrence and husband Grady; a son-in-law, Frank Owens; three grandsons, Chad Lawrence, Justin Beamon, and Kyle Lawrence; a granddaughter, Keosha Beamon; five great-grandsons, William Lawrence, Hunter Beamon, Aaron Lawrence, Luke Lawrence, and Cayden Wallace; and a great-granddaughter, Clara Lawrence. Also included among her survivors are Wendy Pierce Black, Jamie Haskett, Wes Fenton, and Kay Hall, as they are her adopted family.

   A memorial service will be held Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. in the Miller & Van Essendelft Funeral Chapel, 1125 Harvey Point Road, Hertford. A private burial will follow next to her husband in Cedarwood Cemetery. Friends may join the family at the residence.

   She will be deeply missed by those whose hearts she touched with her delightful and fun spirit.

   Online condolences may be made by visiting www.millerfhc.com.