Ernestine Steedly

Elizabeth Ernestine Carter Steedly, 89, of Bamberg, entered into eternal rest Thursday evening, May 16, 2024, at Lexington Medical Center. She was the devoted wife of the late Joseph Milton “Mirt” Steedly, to whom she was married sixty-five years, and a beloved mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, sister, and friend.

Born November 4, 1934, in Bamberg, South Carolina, she was the daughter of the late Joseph Pinckney Carter and Juanita Bethany Bennett Carter.  She grew up and graduated from high school in Ehrhardt, South Carolina.  In 1956, she graduated from Winthrop University, where she majored in Education.  Ernestine was an accomplished teacher.  In addition to touching the lives of many students in her thirty-six years of teaching, her legacy endures through The Elizabeth Ernestine Carter Steedly Endowed Scholarship at Winthrop University, established by her lifelong friend and college roommate Betty Holcombe to benefit education majors.  Ernestine retired from Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School in 1993 after a fulfilling career.  She thrived during her thirty-plus years of retirement and enjoyed gardening, lunches with friends, and fishing with Mirt.

Ernestine was an active member of Hunters Chapel Baptist Church, where she served as Adult Sunday School Teacher, WMU Director for over forty years, and at the time of her passing the church clerk. She was also a member of the Gideon’s Auxiliary.  Ernestine loved to read and was a long-time member of the Friday Afternoon Book Club and the Bamberg County Library Board. She and Mirt enjoyed their yard and loved to feed deer, birds, and the occasional uninvited squirrel that came to visit.

Surviving are: her daughters, Lynne Jeffcoat and her husband Alvin of Branchville and Elizabeth Smith and her husband John of Greenville; grandson, Addison Jeffcoat of West Columbia; as well as a host of nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her brother, Holland McTeer Carter, and her sister, Ruby Catherine Marak.

Memorial contributions may be made to: Hunters Chapel Baptist Church, in care of Dianne Marchant, Treasurer, 3716 Bayview Road, Branchville, South Carolina 29432.

Funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock, Wednesday afternoon, May 22, 2024, at Hunters Chapel Baptist Church, 9423 Hunters Chapel Road, Bamberg. Interment will follow in the church cemetery. The service will be officiated by her son-in-law, Reverend Alvin Jeffcoat.

The family will receive friends prior to the service Wednesday from 1 o’clock until the hour of service in the church sanctuary.

ARRANGEMENTS BY: THE BRICE W. HERNDON AND SONS FUNERAL HOMES AND CREMATORY, EHRHARDT-BAMBERG CHAPEL, 2515 Lowcountry Highway, Ehrhardt, South Carolina, 29081.  Visit the guestbook online at:www.briceherndonfuneralhome.com.