Nancy Ellen (Oberg) Carpenter
Born on the 4th of July, 1928, Nancy passed away late in the day on June 17, 2020, just a few weeks shy of her 92nd birthday. Born in Flushing, she moved with her family to Port Washington when she was about twelve years old. At the age of 18 she married a local boy, Charles (a/k/a Chip) Carpenter when the young sailor returned from three theatres in the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean during WWII. He predeceased her in 2007. She was the last survivor of her nuclear family of five sisters and one brother. Her brother, Carl, predeceased her in November of last year.
Nancy and Chip lived in Port Washington for their entire married life, raising four children. She is survived by those children: Rebecca Byrne (the late Daniel), Nancy Venetos (George), Thomas Carpenter (Barbara) and Amelia Fitzmaurice (Michael); eleven grandchildren: Daniel, Barbara (Mrs. Michael McGovern), Matthew and James Byrne, Jason Carpenter and Ezra Venetos, Nicole (Mrs. James McCain), Timothy Carpenter, and Conor, Neil and Rebecca Fitzmaurice, as well as nine great-grandchildren and a slew of nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by grandson, Lorca Venetos.
After her husband’s death she moved to East Northport where she resided for ten years, following which she moved to Denver, Colorado to be near her youngest child, Amy, and where she continued to live independently until about a week before her death from pneumonia.
A quiet and shy youngster, Nancy was a pleasantly gregarious personality in her later years, often being scolded for speaking her mind. But those scoldings didn’t bother her. She knew that she’d lived a long life and had seen and experienced more than most. She’d lived through the depression of the 1930s, the war years in the 1940s, JFK’s assassination, the Feminist and Civil Rights Movements, the Vietnam War, the moon landing, the dawn of a new century, the 911 terrorist attack, Covid-19 and so much more. She’d known American life under fifteen presidents and all that goes along with the changes in party politics. As a result, she was a self-appointed political pundit. She was never without a story about people and places from her experiences. She was an avid reader, well known at the public libraries she visited weekly. She loved music, had an engaging voice, and always had a song in her heart.
To the end she was lucid and talkative. She and her stories will be sorely missed by all who knew her.
Interment will be later in the year at Nassau Knolls Cemetery.
