Dorothy Mae Melton Tarleton, age 97, passed from this world to Heaven Friday, 1 June 2018 at Lumberton Health and Rehabilitation in Lumberton. A graveside service was held in the Raeford (Hillcrest) Cemetery in Raeford on Sunday, 3 June at 2 p.m.
She was born in 1920, the oldest daughter of Roy Boyd Melton and Hattie Meeks Melton of Wadesboro, and granddaughter of Wade Hampton Melton and Nancy Allen and Harvey Meeks and Minnie Pigg. She and her nine siblings grew up in Wade Mill Village, Wadesboro, and attended the Baptist church there. Called "Polly" by kin, she married and raised her family in Wadesboro, then Rockingham, and finally in Raeford. While there, the family attended Raeford Baptist Church and she worked in the offices of Para Thread and U.S. Rubber. She moved from Raeford to Ft. Pierce, Florida in 1968, where she retired after working 15 years in the offices of the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority. She moved to Lumberton in 1996.
Preceding her in death are brothers William F. Melton and wife Nancy of Jefferson, Bernest G. Melton and wife Ruth of Scaly Mountain, and Franklin Leroy Melton of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and sisters Vonnette Melton Mullen of Youngstown, Ohio, and Esther Melton Zabala of Fort Pierce.
She is survived by brother Richard H. Melton and wife Priscilla of Fort Pierce, and sisters Irene Melton Kandill of Fort Pierce, Betty Melton Rogers of Wadesboro, and Nancy Melton Sizemore of Box Springs, Georgia.
Her three children currently live in Lumberton. They are Sylvia Jean Tarleton Niven and husband Julius Judson Niven Jr. whose children are David Jonathan Niven and Lisa Renee Niven Daniel; Marilyn Joyce "Lynn" Tarleton whose children are Michael Wesley Pond and Robert Eugene Pond; and Alfred McInnis "Mac" Tarleton Jr. and wife Sarah Marie Leach whose children are Brian Gregory Tarleton and Angela Denise Tarleton Oncul. She has 16 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.