Carol Bean Tate

1955 – 2015

LAURINBURG, N.C. — Carol Bean Tate, 59, finished her course in faith on Monday, May 4.

Carol was born Sept. 10, 1955, in Waltham, Mass., a daughter of the late Faye Dorothea Harriman Bean. She grew up in South Paris.

As a teaching assistant at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1977, she met her future husband, with whom she once ran the All-American Marathon in Fort Bragg. As a military spouse, spanning 30 years, she traveled throughout the United States and Europe.

In 1983, she received her master’s degree in special education from the University of Tennessee. In addition to serving as a special education teacher at several locations in the civilian school systems, she also served as the director of child development services on several military installations, a position she held in Berlin, Heidelberg, Fort Drum and Fort Campbell. She later taught special education in Minnesota.

She moved to Laurinburg, N.C., in 2007 and was a special education teacher at Carver Middle School, later teaching at E.E. Smith High School in Fayetteville. In 2013, she began teaching special education at Covington Street Primary School in Laurinburg.

She was described in a note sent to her by her pastor, the Rev. Gene Tyson, now of Fuquay-Varina: “You have a heart for the forgotten.” As recalled by others, “her passion in life was working with children.”

She is survived by her husband, Col. Ret. Paul A. Tate; her sons, Capt. Paul Tate Jr., MD (Jennifer) of Spring Lake, and Seth Tate of Murphy, N.C.; her daughter, 2nd Lt. Becky Harr (Jesse) of Spring Lake; her father, Ellis Bean of South Paris; her brother, Michael Bean of York; her sister, Laura Bean of Brunswick; her grandchildren, Ayva Robinson of Laurinburg and Kiersten Tate and Madelyn Tate of Spring Lake.