Marvin Carroll Buchanan

Marvin Carroll Buchanan, seventy-four years old of the Greens Creek Community in Sylva, NC passed away on Saturday June 29, 2024 at Mission Health in Asheville. Carroll had many things in life he loved and most of all, his family, the hunting camp in Georgia, and his close friends.

Carroll was born on March 3, 1950 to the late John Wesley and Birdie Sutton Buchanan. On December 23, 1969, Carroll married his high school sweetheart Gaye Ensley Buchanan who survives. They were married for 54 years. They were destined to be together from birth as they were both born pre-maturely within a few weeks of each other and Gaye was occupying the only incubator at Sylva Hospital. It was contemplated by the doctors to actually put them both in the incubator together and in the end it was decided Carroll could make it at home. It seemed she was destined to be his caregiver. After graduating from Sylva-Webster High School and a brief employment at Dupont in Brevard, Carroll sought out his dream career as a North Carolina State Highway Patrolman. With the Highway Patrol, he was stationed in Murphy, Sylva, Monroe, Burnsville, and Hendersonville where he attained the rank of Line Sergeant. After his career on the Highway Patrol, Carroll took up a love of building houses completing several in the Sylva area. When he wasn’t trout fishing in the summer, he was hunting in South Carolina and eventually Georgia. While his love for the trout streams and mountains were clear, with his special friends Vinnie and Buck Jenkins he purchased a hunting property to call their own in Warthen, GA. The hunting camp was what he enjoyed most and the group built a house that was open to any friends to come hunt, hangout, and eat. Carroll could cook a steak like no one else and truly enjoyed cooking, as long as someone else volunteered to clean up!

In addition to his wife Gaye, Carroll is survived by his children, Jeff Buchanan and wife Kelley of Hendersonville and Amy Buchanan Pitts and husband Jerry of Apalachicola, Florida. He is also survived by his four grandchildren who he believed the sun rose and set in; Sarah, Samuel, Handley, and Eli. He is also survived by his two sisters and their families Henrietta Bradley and son Jason and Clara Turpin and her husband Ronnie and son Chris. Outside of his family, he had many close friends who he very much enjoyed time with.

A service to celebrate Carroll’s life will be held at First Baptist Church of Sylva, 669 West Main Street Sylva, NC 28778 at two o’clock on Wednesday July 3rd at 2pm where he was a member. Burial will follow at East Fork Baptist Cemetery in the Savannah Community where Carroll was born. The family will receive friends from 12:00 until 2:00 p.m. prior to the service at the church.

Memorials can be made to the Women’s Missionary Union at First Baptist Church or to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital at stjude.org as he believed strongly in both organizations.

Appalachian Funeral Services of Sylva, NC are handling the arrangements.

Carroll will be missed by his family and friends, and we are all thankful for the good times and lasting legacy he left us.