Selma Grace Carpenter

Born on June 17, 1924 in Richlands, NC to Timothy Paul Huffman and India Catherine Howard Huffman. Grace and her three younger siblings grew up in a farming family in the midst of the hardship of the Great Depression. She learned lessons of thrift, frugality, love for others, independence and self-reliance that shaped her personality and served her for a lifetime. She served in the USO club at Camp Lejeune during the war years and truly was a member of the Greatest Generation.

She moved to Williamsburg, VA just following World War II, where she met Edwin Carpenter, who had been recently honorably discharged from the US Army Air Force after serving in the China Burma India Theater and who would become the love of her life. They married and raised two daughters and a son. In her early working years, she worked for the local telephone company in the days when the assistance of a switchboard operator was still needed to make even local telephone calls. Following that she had a long career in the tourist industry until retiring from Colonial Williamsburg in 1988.

She babysat for a number of years for the children of other families, as well as loving and enjoying her own grandchildren and watching them grow up. She was an avid reader, passionate gardener and very talented seamstress. She created magnificent quilts that are treasured by her family to this day. Grace used the independence and self-reliance she learned as a youngster, as her husband died when she was 58 years old, and she lived alone until just a couple of years before her death.

She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings; her husband, Edwin Carpenter; and her daughter, Linda Gail Carpenter. She is survived by her daughter, Judy Skove (David); son, David Carpenter (Barbara); four grandchildren, Claire Skove (Sera Arefaine), Laura Skove (Pierre Decker), Kaela Carpenter, and Peyton Otey; two great grandchildren, Ezra Decker Skove and Theodore Decker Skove; and a host of beloved nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life service will be held at Nelsen Funeral Home on Wednesday, July 9, 2025 at 11:00 AM with a reception immediately following. The interment will be family only.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, donations may be given to Jamestown Presbyterian Church, Grace's worship home for most of her life, at 3287 lronbound Road, Williamsburg, VA, 23185.