Jean Carolyn Livingston

Jean Livingston of Spring Arbor Assisted Living of Cary, NC passed away peacefully at the age of 86 on August 13, 2025. Jean had been ill for many years from dementia. She was a native of Cordova, SC, where she met and married her former spouse, Mr. Paul A. Livingston. They both graduated from Cordova High School. Her parents were Mr. Clarence Cecil and Willie Lou Fogle of Cordova and one brother, Mr. Richard C. Fogle.

Jean's husband was in active duty for the US Air Force when she married him and her first place of residence was in 1957 at Pope AFB in Fayetteville, NC. They then moved to Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach, FL, where their only daughter, Rhonda was born in 1959.

In 1962, she moved to her one and only international destination with her small family to Okinawa, Japan. There, she was employed as secretary to a Southern Baptist Missionary. She worked alongside him and island natives to establish a church (Koza Baptist Church) and school for children on the island. In 1965, they returned to the states and eventually found their way back home to Orangeburg after a brief stint at Bunker Hill AFB in Peru, Indiana. Their next home after a brief stay in SC was in Columbus, GA at Ft. Benning military base where Mrs. Livingston knew many wives whose husbands were serving in the Vietnam War. This was a very trying time in our country and in Jean’s life as she tried to comfort her friends whose husbands were MIA.

After the war, her husband retired Air Force and they both joined the Civil Service and worked at the VA Hospital in Dublin, GA. She was employed as agent cashier and made many friends, mostly of the WWII war, and always there to lend a sympathetic ear to their problems and loneliness. She loved to cheer them up with humor and laughter and one veteran gave her a mink coat! She was not allowed to keep it, however, because of conflict of interest working for the federal government. They had many good years in Dublin and were active members of their church and community. Their daughter graduated high school there and attended college at Valdosta State, where she met and married her husband, Steve Lutz in 1980.

As for Jean and her husband, they went their separate ways but remained close all the way until his death in 2012. She finished out her work history as a loan agent in Rural Development, USDA, in her hometown of Orangeburg, SC. She once again helped people in need by making possible loans and grants from the federal government. You can say her whole life was devoted to making other people’s lives better.

Jean retired from civil service in 2004 and moved to Cary, NC to finally be close to her only daughter and granddaughter and their families. She enjoyed fixing many good meals as hostess, many trips with her family and just being part of a group of special lady friends from her church and apartment complex.

She will always be remembered and loved by all for her kindness, beauty, and I dare say, being one of the old fashioned “Southern Belles” who are slowly disappearing with her generation.

A memorial service will be held to celebrate Mrs. Livingston’s rich and varied life at Woodhaven Baptist Church on September 27th at 2:00 in Apex, NC. She will be laid to rest in her family plot at Memorial Park Cemetery in Orangeburg, SC at a later date.

Memorial tributes and messages of sympathy can be left by clicking the “Add a Memory” box below. Brown Wynne of Cary is honored to serve the Livingston family.