Obituaries

Name:

" Willie Mae Carter "

D.O.B:

11/18/1939

D.O.D

02/28/2026

Country From:

USA

State / Parish:

South Carolina

District

Gaffney

Place of Death

Staten Island, New York

Service Date

03/13/2026

10:00am

Details:

The funeral for the late Willie Mae Carter will take place on Friday, March 13, 2026, at The Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral "The Shekinah Youth Church" located at 111-54 Sayres Avenue, Jamaica, New York 11433. The viewing will be held from 10am-11am followed by the funeral service at 11am. She will be laid to rest in Farmingdale, New York. Please give your condolences to the Carter family.

Special Info

Everything had to be just right with Willie Mae Carter, a petite woman who was particular about the way she carried herself from the healthy diet she consumed, the way she combed her hair, to the fashionable clothes she wore.
Regal and elegant in how she presented, each garment seemed to capture her spirit with a simply stated accessory offering a window into her soul. The heart shaped necklace spoke to her kindness. Butterfly pins on her lapels symbolized freedom and adventure. The pendant that said, "Jesus," let you know how Willie Mae lived her life.

God was her anchor; Psalm 23, her favorite scripture.

"It's a good one to always rely on,'' she said, one day last year, reciting the first few lines.

"The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pasture. He leads me beside still waters."

From the nursing home bed in which she would leave this world, the Lord led Willie Mae home on February 27, 2026. She was 86.

Born November 18, 1939, to Summie and Olivia Fernanders, Willie Mae was one of four children and part of the great migration north like so many who had hopes and dreams for a life better than a segregated south. Raised in Gaffney and Cowpens, S.C., Willie Mae graduated from Benjamin E. Mays High School in 1959 and boarded a bus bound for New York. She left behind the farm of her parents, where she worked in the field picking berries, the memory still daunting.

"It was hot and the fuzz from the berries would eat your tail up," she said.

Onward to something new, Willie Mae would not miss the yellow root her mother boiled to ward off sickness or the castor oil that made her cringe. But she would remember growing up in Shady Grove Baptist Church, then eating black walnut cake her grandmother made during family visits.

After settling in Jamaica, N.Y., Willie Mae met Curtis Lee Carter Sr., an Airforce veteran she married in l961. They moved to Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, N.Y., and had two sons – Curtis Lee Jr. and Barry – whom she would raise after their father's death in 1972. Willie Mae managed, working more than 10 years as a sales person in the toddler section at Alexander's Department Store. There, she met lifelong friends and co-workers, Rose McCollough and Elizabeth Boone, who were more like sisters.

"Our spirits just agreed with one another,'' Boone said.

As needed, she leaned on Queensbridge families to keep an eye on her boys, whom she guided with motherly love and the stern hand of a father from a fifth-floor apartment she had for 62 years. After Alexander's closed, she took a job as an office aide at Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island for 13 years, retiring on disability. Parenting as a single mom was difficult at times, so Willie Mae turned to God to center her life and face challenges that would come her way.

"You're always going to go through something,'' she told her son, Barry, not wanting to be specific.

She joined Sharon Baptist Church, where she was an usher for more than 10 years in the Bronx, N.Y. Always looking to grow her faith, she was a member of Free Women in Christ, attended services at Highland Church in Jamaica, N.Y. before embracing The Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York as her church family in 2002. For 24 years, she was a faithful member, participating in many church activities, including membership in the Elaine M. Flake Missionary Society.
"She was a praying woman,'' said Harriet White, another longtime friend and church member. "Lawd have mercy, that lady could pray. You could feel the spirit from her."

It carried over into how she lived, taking the train and bus to church on Sunday, sometimes during the week. "She was a strong force and believed what she believed,'' said Mary Gaines, who drove her home from church on occasion. Fiercely independent, Willie Mae surprisingly never learned how to drive but she never let it squelch her passion to explore. The subway was her chariot to movies, Broadway plays, the Apollo Theater, Radio City Music Hall, and Lord & Taylor, the store she stepped out of looking like she could have been on the cover of a fashion magazine. She was a fabulous dresser and her keen sense of style was unforgettable.

"She could have one dress and make it look like five,'' McCollough said. "Nobody knew the difference."

As much as she loved fashion, Willie Mae liked talking just as much, holding whomever on the phone for at least an hour. She was consistent in her ways, a dear friend to those who knew her, a mentor to others like Ivory Bradley, her neighbor who could have been her daughter in Queensbridge.

"That was my girl. I listened and learned a lot from her," Bradley said.

As time would have it, the sun began to set on Willie Mae. She had grown tired and weary, but had one more Bible verse to leave us with.

"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."

She was preceded in death by her husband, Curtis Sr; her son, Curtis Jr; siblings Johney Fernanders and Robert Fernanders. Left to cherish her memory are her son Barry Carter, of Maplewood, N.J; granddaughters, Justine (Albert) Carter-Waite, of Rahway, N.J and Jasmine Carter, of Baltimore, Md; great-grandson, Kai Carter Waite of Rahway, N.J., brother, Punzel (Jane) Fernanders, of Spartanburg, S.C.; nephews Ray Fernanders of St. Albans, N.Y. and Shahee Fernanders of Florida; nieces Renee Mosby of South Ozone Park, N.Y. and Regina Fernanders, of Fort Mills, S.C.

[1307]