Services for Mary Helen Dickey Carter, of Brookhaven, will beheld at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church inBrookhaven with burial in the church cemetery. The Rev. Byram D.McKenzie will officiate. R.E. Tyler Funeral Home is in charge ofarrangements.

Visitation is Friday from noon until 7 p.m. at the funeral home,with family present from 6 until 7 p.m.

Mrs. Carter, 74, died March 22, 2008, at St. Dominic-JacksonMemorial Hospital in Jackson. She was born in Lincoln County onFeb. 9, 1934, to John Dickey and Cattie Winston Dickey.

She accepted Christ and was baptized at an early age and was amember of Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, where she served as a classleader until her health failed. She also worked with the YoungPeople Department and the Ebenezer A.M.E. Church InspirationalChoir. Mary graduated from Alexander High School, the Class of1954, where she was an outstanding basketball player, and alongwith her teammates won State Championship titles for 1953 and 1954.She worked as a welder at Jacobsen/Homelite Textron. Afterretirement, she enjoyed caring for children as a private sitter forthe families of Jim and Jennifer Richmond and Don and Sally Doty.She was the matriarch for her family. She also exemplified theMinistry of Help to all.

Preceding her in death were her parents; her husband, NathanCarter Sr.; and her son, Derrick L. Carter; and 14 sisters andbrothers.

Mary Helen, known to her family as “Yuitt,” leaves to cherishher loving memories: four daughters, Brenda Henderson (Sylvester),Cathy Benjamin (Carson), all of Brookhaven, Ebonie Hackett(Victor), of Crystal Springs, and Dorothy Smith (Olian), ofJoliette; four sons, Jason Carter (Arlene), of Brookhaven, KennethCarter (Catrena), of Birmingham, Roy Carter (Iona), of Hazlehurst,and Nathan Carter Jr. (Linda), of Hattiesburg; one sister, EarlineWilliams (Charlie), of Brookhaven; three sisters-in-law, AileneFairman, Lizzie Dickey and Pennie Dickey; 17 grandchildren; eightgreat-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relativesand friends.