Ina Clare Wilcox Permenter

Ina Clare Wilcox Permenter was born July 1, 1929 in Spring Garden, NC and died August 26, 2019 at her daughter’s home in NH. She was the third of five children of Herbert Edwin Wilcox and Annie Sutton Wilcox, and was the last survivor of her generation from both her and her husband’s family. She married Bruce Permenter in 1948. They had three children Beverly (Philip) Cobb of Hubert, NC, Nancy (Billy) Brown of Hopkinton, NH and J. B.(Dail) Permenter of Raleigh, NC. She was the much loved grandmother to Eric, Adam, Jessie, Melissa, Carter and Elizabeth and the great-grandmother to Dylan, Kristina, Laura and Landon. She was adored by her nieces, nephews and cousins and kept in touch with them all. She was a steadfast and loyal friend. She started her married life in Wilmington, NC, moved to Norfolk and Virginia Beach, VA, where she lived for 50 years before returning to NC. She loved to learn and took adult education courses in cake decorating, oil painting, ceramics, and counted cross-stitch. She learned French reweaving, knitting, the art of flower arrangement and how to re-upholster furniture. She was a self-taught and remarkable seamstress. She learned to take on financial responsibility for herself when she was widowed at the age of 49, with little work experience, a small inheritance and an even smaller pension. She was an inveterate volunteer. She loved to use aphorisms and found humor in our most human foibles. She was a devoted Christian, taking to heart Christ’s admonition to love her God with all her heart, and all her soul and all her mind and to love her neighbor as herself. She reached out in mission work and found “neighbors” in women who were former prostitutes and drug addicts, learning, as she listened to their life stories, the lesson of living more compassionately and less judgmentally. She mentored younger women within her congregation and was venerated for her wisdom. She trusted that God was and would forever be with her. She leaves a legacy of love, kindness and generosity and will be greatly missed.

Her funeral service will be held at First Baptist Church of New Bern at 2:00 PM on Friday, August 30 with the viewing beginning at 1:30 PM. The family will receive visitors after the service in the Family Life Center of the church.

Interment will take place on Saturday, August 31 at 11:00 AM in Greenlawn Memorial Park in Wilmington, NC.

Flowers are welcome or donations can be made to First Baptist of New Bern.

Arrangements by Cotten Funeral Home of New Bern.