Maria Wasilenko Carpenter, 90, of Conyers, GA, died Wednesday, July 5, 2017. Her Funeral Service will be held Sunday, July 16, 2017 in the North Charleston United Methodist Church, 1125 E. Montague Avenue at 3:00 pm. Entombment will follow at Carolina Memorial Park. The family will receive friends Sunday one hour prior to the service at the church. Arrangements by J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., North Area Chapel.

She was born in Medvin, Ukraine, on January 9, 1927. She was taken by invading German forces in 1943 to serve as Slavic slave labor in Germany, where she spent the remainder of World War II working on a farm near Cologne. She met her husband, Lucas Adams Carpenter, Jr., an American soldier, shortly after the war, and they were married in Fulda, Germany, on May 17, 1946. They traveled to her husband's hometown of Elberton, GA, in 1947, and from there to North Charleston, SC, in 1952, where she became an American citizen.

She was predeceased by her husband, Lucas A. Carpenter, Jr. and daughter, Vera Jeanette Butler (Tyler) of Norcross, GA. She is survived by two sons, Dr. Lucas Adams Carpenter III (Judith) of Conyers, GA, and USAF Colonel (Ret.) Michael Feodor Carpenter (Brenda) of Norfolk, VA and son-in-law, Tyler Butler of Norcross, GA. She had four grandchildren: Miles Carpenter of Manassas, VA, Dr. Erika Carpenter Rich of Los Angeles, CA, Dr. Meredith Carpenter Hamilton of San Mateo, CA, and Dylan Butler of Norcross, GA. She also had two great-grandchildren: Violet Rich and Theodore Hamilton.

Memorials may be made to Alzheimer's Association, P. O. Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090/Alz.org.