Carol Williams Hunter

CAROL WILLIAMS HUNTER, age 87, of Birmingham, Alabama, passed to her heavenly everlasting life on Friday, June 12, 2026. Family and faith were hallmarks of Carol’s life. She focused her time and energy on her sisters, her children, the Summers’ cousins, and her church family, especially her Sunday school class.

Carol’s love for the Lord Jesus was lived out in service teaching and chaperoning youth, leading Baptist Young Women and Woman’s Missionary Union, teaching Sunday School classes, and singing soprano in her church choir. Preparing to teach her Sunday school lesson was a weekly focus. She attended and served in church leadership at 85th Street Baptist (Birmingham), Deerfoot Baptist (Trussville), and Central Baptist (Trussville).

Carol loved to travel and visited 48 of the 50 US states. The Summers’ Aunt Harriet might have sparked Carol’s love for travel by taking Jackie and Carol on a cross-country car trip to see Cousin Robert in Arizona in the summer of 1952. Summers’ family reunions and educational vacations to Mt. Rushmore and Washington, D.C. were highlights of the 1970s. During the 1980s, she traveled the US and Canada with her parents and sister, Jackie. In the 1990s, she traveled with Evelyn Wages and Brenda and Brea Burelle, all three wonderful friends from Deerfoot Baptist. Carol also traveled with her cousins in the 2000s up to 2023 including to New Year’s Eve in NYC, a Hawaiian cruise, and to their multi-annual “lock-in” trips. Carol tagged along with her daughter on a work trip to Costa Rica in 2017 where she ziplined in the rainforest. For Carol’s 80th birthday in 2018, she requested a girls’ trip to NYC to see the Christmas lights – it was a grand time and included sisters, her daughter, and friends. Carol was up for adventure when she could find it; her life was abundant.

Truly a Summers, Carol loved games and playing cards, especially canasta. When playing games with Carol two things were sure: score would be kept, and probably by Carol, and the rules would be followed as she was always the game’s self-appointed sergeant-at-arms. In fact, Carol was nicknamed “Sarge” in the 1980s by the 85th Street youth – an endearment that stuck and a name to which she answered. Whether she was Carol, Mother, Sarge, Mimaw, or Mimi, she was our favorite Carol Hunter who never put her phone on silent so that she could answer every phone call and show up for those she loved.

Following a series of strokes in August 2023, Carol recuperated, declined, and rallied for 34 months. The family is thankful for the compassion and loving-kindness of Amanda Franklin, whom we met during Carol’s stay at Brookdale in Birmingham, and Taylor Dean, RN, of Compassus Hospice, who cared for Carol during her final 18 months. Family, friends, and church family fed Carol’s soul through visits and calls, including feeding her appetite for Southern home cooking and fast food. Carol loved Lynne’s vegetable soup, old school Summers’ pimento cheese, and Nell Dollar’s chicken and dumplings as thoroughly as she did a pattymelt from Whataburger or DoorDash Panera Bread sent from Louise. We are grateful for every piece of cheesecake, ChickfilA milkshake, Sneaky Pete’s hotdog, or Taco Bell Dorito taco brought during these months. Additionally, we are indebted to Evelyn Wages, a dear friend who called Carol daily, and are inspired by Stacy and David Cole who visited every Saturday, which was a weekly highlight for Carol.

Carol is survived by her children, Jeff (Ellen) Hunter of Smyrna, TN, and Jill (Eric) Westerlund of Farmersville, TX; her sisters, Jackie Williams, Karolyn Lewis, and Lynne (Dale) Beason all of Birmingham; her four grandsons, Blake (Catherine) Hunter of Moody, Brooks Hunter of Smyrna, TN, Hunter (Mauren) Westerlund of Birmingham, and Williams Westerlund of Crossville, TN; her great grandchildren, Alexis Hawsey of Birmingham, Maverick Bevel and Madelynn, Mayli, and Marlee Hunter of Moody; her nieces, Carrie Beason and Holly (Andy) Broyles; and her great nieces, Isabelle and Lilly Broyles all of Trussville. Carol was preceded in death by her parents, Susie (Summers) and Dan H. Williams; her granddaughter, Leslie Hawsey; and her great grandson, Brandon Hawsey.

Carol attended Robinson School in East Lake and graduated from Woodlawn High School, both in Birmingham. Professionally, Carol worked in downtown Birmingham and later Calera, Alabama, from the 1950s to the early 2000s, including at New York Life Insurance, Martin Marietta Cement, and Blue Circle Cement, which later became Lafarge.

A memorial service to honor Carol’s life will be held at 12 Noon on Saturday, June 20th at Central Baptist Church, 8762 Gadsden Highway, Trussville, Alabama. A time of greeting for family and friends will precede the service beginning at 11:30 a.m. on June 20. A private, family burial at Jefferson Memorial Gardens, Trussville, Alabama, will follow the service.

In lieu of flowers, we encourage memorials to Guatemala missions via reallove1john316.org, to the Samaritan’s Purse at samaritanspurse.org, or to a charity or local church that shares the love and salvation of Jesus Christ.