Obit – Mr. Wendel Bennett
Longtime former Carthage business owner, Mr. Wendel Bennett of the Turkey Creek Community was pronounced deceased at 1:03 a.m. Tuesday morning January 2, 2024 at the St. Thomas Ascension Hospital-West in Nashville with his daughter Retta, at his bedside. He was admitted December 26th following a period of declining health. Mr. Bennett was 82.
Bro. Jackie Dawson and Eld. Stephen Farley Brooks officiated the 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon January 4th funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Burial was with his wife and son in the Bennett family lot in the Garden of the Cross at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
Mr. Bennett was the oldest of seven children, five sons and two daughters of the late Milton Ernest Bennett who died March 27, 1988 at the age of 66 and Gladys Irene Whitefield Bennett who died March 2, 1960 at the age of 42 and was born Wendel Wilkie Bennett in Seabowisha in the Lancaster Community on September 9, 1941 and was a twin to Wallace Wilson Bennett who died at the age of 4 months of age on January 7, 1942.
Other siblings preceding him in death were Jere L. Bennett who died at the age of 7 on January 19, 1955, Donna Lou Bennett Vastola who died at the age of 38 in 1993, and William “Pete” Bennett who died at the age of 76 on July 30, 2021.
On October 26, 1963, Mr. Bennett was united in marriage to Carthage native, the former Betty Lou Silcox, at the East Carthage Missionary Baptist Church. She preceded him in death on September 11, 2021 at the age of 77 following almost sixty four years of marriage. The wedding ceremony was performed by the late Eld. R. D. Brooks.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were preceded in death by their only son, Wendel “Wenn” Bennett who died at the age of 47 on February 26, 2021.
Mr. Bennett was of the Missionary Baptist faith.
He and his wife purchased the Woodard Mobil Service Station at the North end of the Cordell Hull Bridge from Harry T. and Christine Allen Woodard in March of 1978. They retired in 2005 after changing the station to a Marathon Station.
Surviving Mr. Bennett is his daughter, Retta Bennett Ellenburg and husband Richard of the Kennys Bend Community; four grandchildren, Jared Ellenburg and wife Tori of the Kempville Community, Lauren Ellenburg and her children, Colton Ellenburg and River Jackson all of the Riddleton Community; Alexa Bennett of Smyrna and Julianna Wright and her son Jax Davis of Virginia; sister, Elizabeth Tramel of Lebanon; brother, Ernest Bennett of Carthage.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
