09/02/2026
December 20, 1930 - August 28, 2026
LaVerne Cotton Carter, 95 of Louisville departed this life on Friday, August 28, 2026.
Visitation 10am - 11am Friday, September 4, 2026, at Walters Clement AME Zion Church 4641 E. Indian Trail. Funeral to follow at 11am. Burial Bardstown Cemetery in Bardstown, Kentucky.
On Saturday, December 20, 1930, LaVerne Cotton Carter ("Flusanna”) her father nicknamed her) was born to Lula and Murrell Cotton in Bardstown, Kentucky.
Her happiest years were spent in Bardstown, where she was the sixth of eight children, a member of St. John’s AME Zion Church, and a salutatorian graduate of Bardstown Training High School. She joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and graduated from Kentucky State College with a B.S. Degree. Her first two years of teaching were in Garrard County, Kentucky.
LaVerne married John H. Carter in Baltimore. They moved to Detroit, where John Jr. ("Butch") and Nathaniel ("Nat") were born.
The family later moved to Louisville, where Walter ("The Baby") was born. She was granted a divorce in 1967.
After a twelve-year absence, she resumed teaching in Louisville with the CAC program, Newburg Elementary, Seneca Junior High, and Myers Middle School in Jefferson County, from which she retired after twenty-seven years of service. It was while Vickey was a student of hers at Myers that they adopted one another. She was a member of Walters Clements Memorial AME Zion Church.
To her survivors, and especially her sons and daughter, LaVerne leaves the challenge to dream the impossible dream and to reach their unreachable stars. She leaves to cherish her memory three sons: John Heyward Carter(Lisa) of Louisville, Kentucky; Nathaniel Muir Carter (Carla) of Georgia; Walter Sidney Carter (Tiffany) of Georgia; and one daughter, Vickey Lynn Pettiway of Louisville, Kentucky; 15 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; two nieces, Michelle
Anne Shorter and Courtney Cotton; and one nephew,
Michael Elbert Shorter.
LaVerne was preceded in death by her parents, Lula and Murrell Cotton,along with beloved siblings and grandchildren.