Fay Heath Harrell, 92, passed away peacefully at her home surrounded by loved ones on February 9, 2025.

Visitation will be 1:00pm - 2:00pm on Saturday, February 15, 2025 at Oak City Baptist Church with service following at 2:00pm officiated by Pastor Lewis Cook and Pastor Linda Clark. Burial will follow at Oak City Cemetery.

Fay was the ninth of ten children born to Terence Leroy Heath and Cynthia Ruth Mendenhall Heath. She was born on December 23, 1932 in Beaufort County, North Carolina near Farm Life. Fay attended Conetoe, Speed and Tarboro schools while living on tenant farms. Fay's teenage years were spent helping her mother run a boarding house in Tarboro while her father resided at the Edgecombe Sanitorium due to tuberculosis.

After graduating from Tarboro High School in 1950, she worked at State Life and Health Insurance Company as a claims adjustor and corporate stockholder registrar.  Fay is best remembered for working in the Martin County Public School System with her last period of employment at Edna Andrews Elementary School in Hamilton.

On May 15, 1955, Fay married Melvin Odell Harrell from Oak City.  She joined Melvin on the farm and they had three sons, Melvin Jeffry, Russell Heath and Robert Terence. Fay was a member of the Oak City Red Hat Society, Oak City Supper Club and Oak City Baptist Church where she taught adult Sunday School. She was a two-time survivor of breast cancer.

Fay was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin, and her brothers Leroy, Russell, Clyde, Eric, Garland, and A.T. as well as her sisters Neva, Thelma and Dorothy.  She is survived by her three sons and four grandchildren: Russ (Lori), Sammy (Lindy), Kenan and Finley Harrell and five great-grandchildren: Eliza, Jones, Brooklyn, Heath and Levi.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Oak City Baptist Church or Hospice of North Carolina.