The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society.
On a bright and beautiful late summer morning, Angelene Cash Carter and her husband, Fred Carter, drove to the Suitland Metro Station just outside Washington, D.C. They took the same train across the Anacostia River into the city, then went their separate ways. It was the last time Fred would see Angelene. Later that morning, Angelene was on the phone with one of her daughters in Belgium when the line went dead. No one would ever talk to Angelene again.
Angelene C. Carter was born Feb. 6, 1950. She grew up in Peachland and took accounting classes at night to earn her degree. For 26 years she was a devoted employee of the government, spending the last eight years of her life in the Pentagon as a staff accountant for the Department of the Army. She died on that bright and beautiful morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when a plane slammed into the Pentagon in an act of terrorism.
Angelene met her husband, Fred, at a Christmas party. She asked him to dance. They were married two years later. She collected shot glasses from all the places that she and Fred visited, though she did not drink. She attended St. Paul Baptist Church in Capitol Heights, Md., where she was a member of the adult usher board and various Bible study groups.
“She was an ‘ordinary’ person whose God-given vision and mission was to accomplish ‘extraordinary’ goals in life,” reads a Department of Defense press release. “Her philosophy on life was validated every day by her quiet character and conduct, by insuring that her work assignments and performance supported the level of services and expectations of her superiors and professional peers. She exhibited outstanding strength and leadership, which served as an example to her family, coworkers, church and friends.”
Angelene is survived by her loving husband, Fred Carter (a retired Army sergeant); her mother, Leona D. Cash; two daughters, Angenette Cash and Freddye Jean Carter; three step-daughters, Venus Scott, Victoria Carter and Cheryl Carter; two sisters, Linda C Reid and Deloise C Thorne; and two brothers, Claude and Donnie Cash.
Angelene is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery near the Pentagon Memorial. To read Steve’s account “Remembering Angelene C. Carter” on Facebook, click here.