May Jeanne Cave Lepionka

May Jeanne Cave Lepionka, 103, of Beaufort, SC passed away on April 21, 2025 surrounded by her family. Her funeral service will be held Friday, April 25, 2025 at Carteret St. United Methodist Church, 408 Carteret St., Beaufort, SC 29902 at 11:00 am. Burial to follow at Evergreen Cemetery in Beaufort, SC. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service in Carteret St. United Methodist Church. Arrangement by J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., Northwoods Chapel.

May was born on May 16, 1921 in Digne, France to poet, Humberston Skipwith Cannell of Philadelphia, PA and Juliette DelGrange Cannell of Paris, France. In 1925 she and her parents boarded the S.S. Republic to make the ten-day journey from France to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island on March 5, 1925.

After a period of travel up and down the East coast, her family settled in the Washington, D.C. area where May attended school. She completed school as the president and salutatorian of her class. While job hunting as a young woman, one of her friends mentioned a job opening at a bank in Beaufort, SC. May jumped at the opportunity, traveled south, accepted the job, and made Beaufort her home for the next 80 years.

May was a fixture of the Pigeon Point community where she lived for nearly 50 years. She loved nothing more than to sit on her back porch with friends and family watching boats cruise up and down the Beaufort River. She was an avid walker, talented painter, and made the best homemade meatballs for her family, despite becoming a vegetarian at the age of 7. While she traveled to many places throughout her life, nowhere ever compared to her beloved Beaufort.

May was preceded in death by her first husband, Albert Sidney “Buck” Cave, her second husband, Francis J. Lepionka, her infant daughter, Anne Marie Cave, her sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and David Engleman, her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Howard H. Farmer, Sr. and Annie Mae Farmer, her half-brother, Michael J. Cannell, and her stepsons, Larry B. and Tyrone J. Lepionka.

May is survived by her daughter, Sarah Ann Johnson (Robert) and son, Albert Sidney Cave, Jr. (Melanie) as well as her half-brothers and sisters: David S. Cannell, Mary C. Porter (Edwin), John J. Cannell, and Susan A. Cannell (Richard Skoonberg). She is also survived by her grandchildren, Lara Lepionka (Stevens), Franziskus Lepionka (Jennifer), Lenora McCandless (Chris), Brian Henry (Amy), Alexandra Lepionka (Felix), Matthew Henry (Vanessa), Kyle Lepionka (Roxanne), Karen Williams (Cameron), Stephen Cave, and Katherine Gonzalez as well as her eleven great-grandchildren, Willa, Beatrix, Caleb, Taylor, Noah, Samantha, Ella, Alexa, Helen, Carson, and Roan.

Memorials in her honor are welcome to be made to her favorite charity, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at www.stjude.org or Carteret St. United Methodist Church, 408 Carteret St., Beaufort, SC 29902.

A memorial message may be sent to the family by visiting our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com.