b. September 19, 1953In her thirty-three short years, Debra Ann Wise Carter had touched the lives of many people, and through her marriage to Joseph Thomas Watlington touched us deeply also. The daughter of James B. Wise and Agnes Daugherty Wise, Debra and Joe T. were united in marriage in Chattanooga on January 15, 1983. She was a registered nurse, and certified for specialty work in a trauma unit, where she continued to work on a part-time basis until the last months of her life.m. January 15, 1983, Joseph Thomas Watlington
d. May 1, 1987
pb. Fort Hill Cemetery, Cleveland, Tenn.
Struck by a malignancy in 1973, during her first marriage to Charles R. Carter, Jr., she lost her right hand and wrist to surgery and also lost a baby boy who died soon after birth.
Working for some years as a medical secretary, she solicited the right to study nursing and graduated in May 1981. She and Joe T. met during his studies at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. They have two lovely daughters, Laura Janice and Emily Jane.
Through her personal struggle against cancer and handicap, and her work as a medical secretary, nursing student, nurse, wife and mother, she was well known and greatly appreciated in the medical community in Chattanooga.
A recurrence of the malignancy was diagnosed in late November 1986 and chemotherapy treatments were prescribed, but to no avail. Knowing of her losing struggle she valiantly faced death even as she had life, with preparedness, hope and resolution.
She was laid to rest in the Fort Hill Cemetery at Cleveland, Tenn., near her father and infant son, Jeremy, by loving friends and family.