"Nancy" Anne Langhorne Mordecai

   Anne Langhorne “Nancy” Wood Carson Mordecai, 92, of Raleigh and Edenton, NC, died on September 13, 2019, at her residence, in the former Edenton Cotton Mill of which her grandfather Julien Wood in 1898 had been an incorporator.

   Born September 25, 1926, in Baltimore, to James Edward “Jim” Wood of Edenton and Anne Langhorne Kemp Wood, niece of Nancy Langhorne Astor, of Lynchburg, Nancy grew up in Edenton where she attended the Edenton Graded School.

   She was graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Raleigh in 1944 and from St. Mary’s Junior College in 1946 and then attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and she served as the State’s Eastern leader of the 1945 North Carolina Debutante Ball.

   She was predeceased by her youngest sister, Sara Kemp Wood Wickham, and is survived by her middle sister, Frances Wood Crawford, of Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Galax, Va.

   Of her first husband, the late Edward “Ed” Carson of Greensboro, Nancy is survived by their three children, who grew up in Greensboro, then Edenton, Chapel Hill, and finally Nicaragua:  Edward Carlisle “Ed” Carson of Raleigh; Anne Langhorne Carson Hunt, and her husband, Peter, of London, England; and James Wood “Jimbo” Carson, and his wife, Kimberly, of Durham and of Portland, Oregon.

   And of her second husband, the late George Washington Mordecai of Raleigh, Nancy is survived by her fourth child, who grew up with them in Nicaragua and in Raleigh, Julien Wood Mordecai, and his wife, Patti, of Edenton, and is also survived by George’s elder son, George Mordecai, and his wife, Mary, of Swepsonville.

   She is survived by her nine grandchildren: Rachel Hunt Bonnet, Michael Hunt, Rebecca Hunt Simpson, Matthew Hunt, Shankara Carson and his twin Grace Carson, Wood Mordecai, Beatrice Mordecai, and Harris Mordecai.

   And she is survived by eleven great-grandchildren: Emily, Thomas, and George Bonnet; Maria, Zara, and Annabel Hunt; John, James, and Giulia Simpson; and Alfred and Joseph Hunt.

   Nancy began her broadcasting career in Edenton as the host of a radio show in the 1950’s and concluded it in Chapel Hill as the program director for WUNC-TV in the 1960’s.

   After her 1979 escape with George from their cotton plantations expropriated by the Nicaraguan Revolution, and until their 2013 retirement to Edenton, Nancy in Raleigh managed their Hayes-Barton Pool until they sold it in 1987. She also worked as a realtor with Howard Perry and Walston, and served in volunteer capacities at the Joel Lane House, the Mordecai House, and Haywood Hall, and as the chairman of the Colonial Dames in Wake County.

   Funeral services will be held next week at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday the 28th in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edenton, Nancy’s home church since childhood, and her family will receive visitors in the parish hall following that service. The committal service will be at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday the 28th in the Mordecai family plot in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh with a reception to follow (local to be determined). Flowers or donations may be sent to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edenton.

Miller Funeral Home & Crematory, 735 Virginia Road, Edenton, is assisting the family with arrangements, and condolences may be registered at www.millerfhc.com.