Eleanor M. Hunt

ELEANOR M. HUNT Eleanor Margaret Morgan Hunt passed away on January 29, 2019. She was at home in Culpeper, Virginia, surrounded by her family including her son David Morgan Hunt of Denver, NC, her daughters Margaret Muldrow Hunt, with whom she lived in Culpeper, Rebecca Hunt Keane of Atlanta, Sarah Hunt MacDougal of St. Louis. Also at hand were her granddaughters Stephanie Hunt Coxon, Jennifer Hunt, Moira and Olivia MacDougal, her son-in-law A.J. Keane, other extended family, and her steadfast cat companion, Sweetie. Eleanor and her beloved husband Oliver Raymond Hunt Jr., a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, resided in Wilmington for more than 40 years, from 1969 until his death in 2010. Born on March 20, 1926, Eleanor had an idyllic childhood growing up on the Berea College campus in Berea, Kentucky. She was the first-born of educators Charles Thomas and Jimmy Norton Morgan, both from North Georgia. Eleanor married Navy Ensign JG Ray Hunt in 1944 prior to his assignment in the Pacific Theater. A gifted pianist who loved Chopin, she graduated from the University of Louisville with degrees in English and music. Eleanor believed deeply in being an anchor for her family and made beautiful homes in many places including Canada and Paraguay. She believed in living a productive life and pursued with depth interests in music, gardening, needlepoint, sailing, travel, homemaking, cooking, and writing. She is the author with her mother of "Save Room for Dessert" (Coastal Carolina Press 2002), and manuscripts for a romantic memoir "The Stars and Heaven Beneath Our Feet" (2014) and "The Mysteries and Adventures of Sweetie" (2015). She also believed in contributing to her community and engaged in leadership of an extraordinary range of organizations, helping to shape the Wilmington area. She co-founded the New Hanover County Arboretum and was first president of its Foundation. She was a trustee of the Cape Fear Hospital Foundation, a fourteen-year board member of the Wilmington Concert Association, and served in many roles including that of president for state, regional, and local entities including the North Carolina Medical Society Alliance, the New Hanover-Pender County Medical Alliance, the North Carolina Medical Society Alliance Health Education Foundation (board chairman), the Cape Fear Garden Club, the North Carolina Azalea Festival Garden Tour, the Garden Club of North Carolina, and as a member of the White House Conference on Legal Drug Abuse, the Governor's Leadership Conference for Women, his Immunization Task Force, and many more. We cherished Eleanor for her gentle spirit and serenity, sense of wonder, reserved wit, encouragement, innovation, and her forward-looking optimism. In addition to her four children, four grandchildren, and five great grandchildren, she is survived by her brother William "Bill" Morgan of Knoxville, Tennessee and Jean Morgan Roessler of Grand Junction, Colorado. She will be buried next to Ray this spring at Arlington National Cemetery.