Clara Mae Edwards Bennett
September 12, 1926 – December 30, 2025
Raleigh, North Carolina

Clara Mae Edwards Bennett, 99, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. She was born on September 12, 1926, at her family's farm in Beulaville, Duplin County, North Carolina. She grew up in that same home, surrounded by a close-knit family of five sisters and one brother, and parents who worked tirelessly and made many sacrifices to provide a loving home for their children.

Clara was the daughter of Tracy Cornelius Edwards and Caroline Shepard Edwards of Beulaville. After high school, she attended King's Business College in Raleigh, where she met and later married the love of her life, Earl Rodger Bennett. Clara was an intelligent, loving, funny, and fiercely protective woman who enjoyed many adventures throughout her life, but her greatest joy was being a mother and grandmother.

She was a devoted mother to two sons, Earl Rodger Bennett, Jr. (Brenda) and the late Eric Bernard Bennett (Pamela). She was a proud grandmother to four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren: Jennifer Bennett and her daughter, Riplee Bennett; Tillman Bennett; Natalie Bennett (Greg); and Olivia Bennett Ellis (Josh Ellis) and their son, Emmett Ellis.

Clara was a loving sister to Glenda Desern (Donald) and Tracy Bird (Bob) and was preceded in death by her siblings Ruby Brown (Jimmie), Cornelius Edwards (Hettie), Dora Stokes (Frank), and Pansy Dobson (Yates). She was "Aunt Clara" to many cherished nieces and nephews who loved her dearly.