KENNETH TURNER
ROSE HILL -- Judge Kenneth Ward Turner died at his home on Wednesday. He was 77.
After graduating from Rose Hill High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Following his discharge in 1946, he attended Atlantic Christian College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law in 1953 with a juris doctorate degree. He joined his father in the practice of law in Rose Hill. He served as Chairman of the Duplin County Board of Elections for four years and was town attorney for the Town of Rose Hill from 1953 through 1968. At that time he became a prosecutor for the State of North Carolina. In 1972 he was elected District Court Judge and in 1976 was named Chief District Judge for the Fourth Judicial District by Chief Justice Susie Sharp of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He retired in January 1993. He was a life-long member of Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, where he served as a Sunday School teacher, a Sunday School Superintendent, and a member of the Board of Trustees.
He was a member of the American Judges Association, the American Judicature Society, the North Carolina Bar Association, the Fourth Judicial District Bar Association and the North Carolina Association of District Judges. He was also a member of the Curriculum Advisory Committee for the Political Science Department of Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, NC.
Judge Turner is survived by his wife, Bobbye Teachey Turner, whom he married on Feb. 12, 1955; a son, Kenneth W. Turner Jr. of Cary; a daughter, Stephanie T. Yelton of Raleigh; two sisters, Olivia T. Davis of Southern Pines and Emory T. Ennis of Raleigh; and four grandchildren.
Burial will be at the Rose Hill Cemetery on Saturday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m. A memorial service will be held on Saturday afternoon at 2 at Mount Zion Presbyterian Church.
The family will receive friends following the service at church, and other times at their residence, 918 East Main Street, Rose Hill.
Padgett Funeral Home in Wallace is serving the family.
Published in Obituaries on February 11, 2005 1:49 PM