Carole Witcher, 80, passed away on Tuesday Feb 10th, 2026, due to declining frontal temporal dementia. She was a resident of Autumn Care of Marshville for over 7 years.

She was born in Exeter, NH, the oldest child of the late Richard W. Smith & Caroline Marie Underhill Smith. She grew up, went to school in Concord, NH where she met and married W. Donald Haugen in June 1962. They then moved to Charlotte NC where she raised her family.  She found her way to Orlando FL where she earned her associate's degree at Valencia Community College. She worked for many years as a legal secretary for a small law office in downtown Orlando and became a huge Florida gators fan. She married Lee Edward Witcher in Sept 1984 at their home in Orlando.

In 2012, Carole & Lee moved back to NC to be closer to their daughters and help take care of her mother. She loved to attend her grandchildren's school and church events and any other social gatherings. She was known to her grandchildren as Nona.

She loved to sing, dance, laugh and have fun. She was definitely the life of the party. She loved people and never met a stranger - even in the grocery store! She took up quilting years ago and, in that time, has made many quilts for family and friends.

Carole is survived by her husband Lee of Wingate, NC, daughters Karin Gillespie (Rodney) of Gastonia, NC and Heather Kiser (Mark) of Wingate, NC, sister Elaine Smith of Orlando, FL and her brother Rick Smith (Penny) of Barrington, NH. Grandchildren include Bailey, Reid, Brooke, Rachel & Alex; great-grandchildren, Caden, Teagan & Dawson; nieces & nephews Eric, Chris, Shawn and Erin, many cousins and friends.

For any who wishes to honor Carole's memory, please consider donating to theaftd.org to help fund dementia research.