Bland, Nancy

BLAND (CARTER), Nancy Nancy Carter Bland, age 84, died on Sunday July 5th after a long illness. She died at home in Atlanta, surrounded by family and devoted care-givers. Nancy Hill Carter, was born in 1935 in Atlanta GA, the younger daughter of Walter Colquitt Carter and Marion Bryan Carter. She attended E. Rivers Elementary School, North Fulton and Northside High School. She spent many happy summers at Camp Merrie-Woode in Sapphire, NC, as a camper and later as a counselor. She loved canoeing on Lake Fairfield and living in cabins below Old Bald. Nancy attended Randolf-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, VA for two years before completing her B.A. degree in 1957 at Emory. Between her junior and senior years, she was elected president of the Atlanta Debutante Club. At Emory, Nancy met Jim Bland from Statesboro, GA and they married in 1958 while Jim was a medical student. In 1961, with a toddler and an infant in tow, Nancy moved to Charleston, SC where Jim was stationed as a naval medical officer. In 1963, now with three young children, the family returned to Atlanta and built a house next to Nancy's parents' home, and just down from her grandparents' house which then occupied the corner of Peachtree and West Wesley. She loved living close by her parents, extended family and close friends in the neighborhood where she grew up. In 1971, Jim accepted a medical fellowship in Toronto and the family moved to Canada. Though the cultural experience was exciting, northern winters were not and after two years, the family returned to Atlanta at which time Nancy accepted a teaching position at the Lovett Pre-School. After teaching for more than ten years, Nancy retired from Lovett to spend more time on volunteer interests and at Rock Spring Farm in Murray County, GA. She successfully nominated Rock Spring Farm for addition to the National Register of Historic Places and she opened it generously to community groups from north Georgia and from the Cherokee Nation. Nancy was a member of Atlanta Junior League and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia, where she was a member of Atlanta Town Committee. She and Jim were generous supporters of numerous cultural, historical, and social service organizations. In particular, Nancy was a long-time board member for the Atlanta Opera and an important benefactor and promoter of the organization in its early years. She served on the Boards of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society and the Friends of the Vann House. Nancy deeply loved the state where she was born, where her family has lived for generations. She loved its coastal marshes; she loved Atlanta with all it's growth and change, and most of all she loved the mountains and valleys of north Georgia where her ashes will be laid in the family cemetery at Rock Spring Farm. Aside from family and friends, the loves of Nancy's life were her dogs. From a young age, she was never without canine companionship--over the years, she shared her life with a Basset, a Springer, rescues and numerous long-haired dachshunds. She loved them all and they were all devoted to her. Nancy was a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. She was predeceased by her husband of 58 years Jim, and by her older sister Florence Carter Hanes and her brother-in-law John "Jake" Hanes. She is survived by her daughter Sarah Bland Fielding of Atlanta and her husband Major Henry W. Fielding (retired) of the Georgia State Patrol, by her son Walter Carter Bland of Aspen CO, and his wife Robin Jormark-Bland, by her son James Walter Bland III and his wife Shaun Higgins Bland, and by two grandchildren James Walter Bland IV and Carolyn Dalton Bland. The family requests that memorials for Nancy be made to the Atlanta Opera, Attn: Development 1575 Northside Drive NW, Suite 350 Atlanta 30318; Merrie-Woode Foundation, 100 Merrie-Woode Road, Sapphire, N.C. 28774; or St Luke's Episcopal Church, Attn: David Hendee, 435 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30308.

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Funeral Home Information

H.M. Patterson & Son-Oglethorpe Hill Chapel

4550 Peachtree Road Ne

Atlanta, GA