Peggy Sue Wilkinson Carter was known by her friends and family as someone who was willing to help anyone who needed it.
So when a friend asked her to work at his business last Friday, she was willing to lend a hand.
It cost her her life.
A deputy sheriff responding to a call at 1:35 a.m. Saturday about a woman who was injured in the Express Cash office found Carter lying on the floor of the business, severely injured and unconscious, the victim of an assault and robbery of the business.
She died from her injuries Sunday afternoon.
While Pike County authorities continued their investigation into Carter’s death Wednesday, her friends and family attended funeral services for her at First Baptist Church in Summit.
Carter’s sister, Jo Dennard, said the service was also attended by area and corporate officials of Koch Foods, where Carter worked for 30 years.
Dennard said her sister was the office manager for Koch Foods in Morton, adding that she had been an employee with the company for 30 years. Koch acquired B.C. Rogers Processing about eight years ago.
“She ran the business,” Dennard said.
“She was not an employee at the business (Express Cash),” she said.
“She was working for a friend. All this happened because she was helping a friend out.”
Dennard said her sister had been friends with Express Cash owners Mark and Glory Newman and occasionally worked for them when they needed help.
“Mark Newman needed someone to fill in for him while he was out of town, and Sue was simply helping a friend in a bind,” she said.
That willingness to help was part of her sister’s character, Dennard said.
“First were her children and grandchild and her family, and the only other thing in her life was work, and she did it all the time,” she said, adding that Carter always took time to be with her family but also put in a lot of time at Koch foods.
“She ran all the office operations and filled in for me when I was gone,” said Chuck Magraf, distribution center manager for Koch Foods in Morton.
Magraf worked with Carter for six years.
He said she was recently named one of the outstanding businesswomen in Scott County.
“She just never missed a day of work, and was dedicated to this place,” he said. “She wouldn’t leave until she was convinced that everything was done.
“She filled in wherever we needed help; she would do anything for anybody,” Magraf said.
“She was one of a kind. They broke the mold when they made her. She never complained; she just did what had to be done and always had a smile on her face.”
Magraf said Carter had two favorite sayings: “Dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s,” and “You’re burning daylight.”
“We had two-way radios to communicate with the warehouse,” he said. “She’d look outside and see the workers doing nothing and get on the radio and tell them, ‘You’re burning daylight.’ ”
“She was just a wonderful person,” said Pike County Chancery Clerk Doug Touchstone.
“She was like a sister to me and my family, and she was a second mother to my kids.
“She (did) for others, that was her thing,” he said.
“She was always doing something for you. Her son and my youngest son stayed together all the time.
“She was an outstanding person. We’re going to miss her. It was just a terrible tragedy,” Touchstone said.
“Sue was the mom that was always at sporting events that her children participated in,” Dennard said. “She was a Christian and always there to help anybody who needed help.”
Carter’s family is from Wilkinson County, and Carter was the second-oldest of six girls. She was born in Woodville, where her mother lives.
She lived in Pike County for 30 years and had a house in McComb and in Morton, where she stayed when she worked there.
Carter had two children — a son, Casey, and daughter, Melissa Jo.
She had a granddaughter, Lillian, whom Dennard said was the heart of her sister’s life.
“We ask that the community pray that the Pike County Sheriff’s Department capture the animal that did this to our sister, mother and daughter,” she said.
