Tess Carolyn Luper

Mrs. Tess Carolyn Russell Luper, 83, of the Greenbrier Community of New Bern, passed from this life on earth to her heavenly home with Jesus on Wednesday, November 29, 2017. She was born June 25, 1934, in High Point, NC, the daughter of Rufus Clegg Russell and Juanita Clark Russell. Tess graduated from Greensboro Senior High School and from Women's College, UNC Commercial Department in Greensboro in 1953. She married William Donald Luper on June 6, 1953, in the First Baptist Church of Greensboro, NC. They lived in Westbrook, CT and Wilmington, NC while he served in the US Coast Guard in 1955.
After returning to Greensboro, she served as Executive Secretary to the President of Pilot Life Insurance Company before retiring to be a homemaker and mother. After her husband was sent to Miami, FL with his job, Tess studied acrylic art and began exhibiting and selling paintings in galleries- then in Greensboro, where they moved back to. She served as Missions Administrator at Westover Church from 1984-1993, and coordinated their yearly Missions Conferences.
Tess loved designing houses and the Lupers lived in two of them outside Greensboro- one on eight acres in the woods in Summerfield, and the other on a lake on the 18th fairway at Deep Springs Golf Course in Madison, NC. When they left Madison to move to New Bern in 1995, they have enjoyed living on another lake and 18th fairway at The Emerald Golf Course. She has been active in the Christian Woman's Club, Trent Woods Garden Club, Twin Rivers Artists' League - exhibiting at the Public Library as "Artist of the Month" several times and in other venues around New Bern; and New Bern Woman's Club, where she was named "Outstanding Club Woman of the Year", in 1998. She coordinated several Holly & Ivy Christmas tours when they began. The Craven County Council on Women named her a 1998 Craven County Distinguished Woman Awards Nominee for Arts. Tess was a very active member of Brice's Creek Bible Church, serving on the Missions Committee and planning their Missions Conferences and preparing the monthly missionary prayer calendar. She and her husband taught the "Family To Family" support class for the National Alliance For The Mentally Ill - New Bern, for nine years.
Some of Tess's favorite things were - designing houses; interior decorating; painting pictures; the different churches she had the honor to belong to and working with all the missionaries they supported and planning the Missions Conferences; having friends to her home for the weekly Bible Studies that Bill would teach; all the animals they loved and were privileged to share their lives with - especially the last two cats, Kate & Kelly; entertaining and having family celebration dinners on birthdays, Thanksgiving, and especially Christmas Eve dinners around the large table in "the big room". She loved - being around her sweet daughter-in-law Susan, who would take her on several trips; her three sons - Donnie, a wonderful Christian and amazing endodontist, as she realized while having a painless root canal in his office and thinking "This is that little baby boy we had?"; Rusty, kind and sweet man, who became her companion going to art galleries and stores - and coming for Mom's home cooking twice a week!; Jonathon "Duke" - who works for Disney in L.A. and makes a long trip to see Mom & Dad, and his two New Bern brothers at Christmas - a smart, loving, and kind person! She cherished being with her grandchildren and their families and especially when they would visit her and Bill with GREAT grandchildren. But the most important thing besides Jesus and God that Tess loved, was being with her husband of over 64 years, Bill, her high school sweetheart and the love of her life. It was AMAZING!!
Sadly, Tess was predeceased by her parents; her brother, Gilbert Clark Russell; stepmother, Myrtle Young Russell; two brothers-in-law, Thomas Calvin Luper and Raymond "Buddy" Luper.
The family will receive friends 6-8:00 PM, Friday, December 1, 2017, at Pollock~Best Funeral Home, 2015 Neuse Blvd. in New Bern, and Tess' funeral will be 11:00 AM, Saturday, December 2, 2017, at Brice's Creek Bible Church, 3998 US Hwy 70 East, in New Bern, with Pastor Barry Teague officiating. Burial will follow at New Bern Memorial Cemetery, 1005 Chelsea Rd. New Bern. Online condolences may be made atwww.pollockbest.com. Memorials, in Tess' name, may be made to Colonial Capital Humane Society, PO Box 326 New Bern, NC 28563, or www.colonialcapital.wixsite.com/cchs.
Tess is survived by her husband of 64 years, William Donald "Bill" Luper Sr.; three sons; (1) Dr. William Donald "Donnie" Luper Jr. and wife Susan, of New Bern, their children: William Donald Luper III (Joanna), and their two sons William Donald Luper, IV and Alexander Thomas Luper, of Lynchburg, VA; Ashley Elizabeth Romig (Scott), and their children, Abraham Noah and Eleanor Romig, of North Africa; and Dana Carolyn Luper, of New Bern; (2) Russell Grey Luper, of New Bern; (3) Jonathon Gold "Duke" Luper, and his wife Karen Kimmel, and their daughter Jessica Luper, of Los Angeles, CA; her sister-in-law, Glorine Luper, of Greensboro, NC; and several nieces and nephews.
Pollock~Best Funerals & Cremations is entrusted with the Luper Family.