b. December 16, 1946

by the Archives Committee, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, 2016

Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Eugenie “Genie” Waddell Carr was baptized and confirmed at St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington. In her own words, “I’ve loved church since I was little. I still can feel the press of Bishop Thomas Wright’s hands on my head as he confirmed me. I felt as if I was walking on air as I returned to our pew. (In the church’s early days, in the 19th century, it WAS ‘our’ pew – the last time I checked, my mother’s family name was still affixed to the end of it. My father’s family were Presbyterians.)”

Like many young adults, Genie didn’t attend church during college or for several years after. Following graduation from Sweet Briar, she worked in Boston for four years. Those times were when the “new Prayer Book” was being developed, and she’s glad she missed the furor. However, when she returned to church in 1974 – two years after returning to North Carolina for a newspaper job in Winston-Salem – she was delighted with the new version. “St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, which I attended for nearly 15 years, was then using the ‘green book.’ For the first time in my life, I understood what some parts of the liturgy meant. And could pronounce some of the words – no more ‘inestimable.’”

At. St. Anne’s, Genie found friends and had leadership experiences – particularly Vestry and Senior Warden – and was a first-time chalice bearer. “The first day I attended St. Anne’s, I saw that the chalice bearer was a woman, and I burst into tears. At that point, women still couldn’t be ordained in the Episcopal Church, so a woman in a vestment that wasn’t a choir vestment was new and wonderful.”

During the 1980s Genie was very involved with Cursillo in the diocese, serving on teams for retreat weekends. She made life-long friends during that time. Scheduled to be the Rector (lay leader) of Cursillo #47 in 1988, she was in a bad car accident the weekend before, and spent that Cursillo weekend in the hospital.

Recovery from the head injury sustained in that accident took several months. Wanting to do “something worthwhile” in gratitude for being alive, Genie took the suggestion of the Rev. Dr. Fred Horton and volunteered at Hospice. Still working, she took a long hiatus from this Hospice work before returning in 2005.

Following the accident, not feeling up to all the work in a small church, Genie transferred to St. Paul’s in 1989. She became involved in a variety of activities, including Education for Ministry, first with longtime Christian Education Director, Wilma Smiley; then for 20 years as EFM co-mentor with Marjorie Northrup for four groups (four years for each group), and with Chip Morgan for one group. She wrote a monthly newsletter reporting on renovation projects, served on the Vestry, on a Rector search committee, as a layreader, chalice bearer, Lay Eucharistic Visitor, and committee member: Communications, Ecclesiastical Arts, Community Gatherings, Senior Adults, Faith & Justice, and Red Cross Blood drives.