(10 September 1951 – 12 January 1982)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged to date about twenty specimens collected by Carol Bissett; all are bryophytes collected from Orange County, North Carolina, and all have her maiden name, “Bissett” on the label. It is possible that six vascular plants collected in York County, South Carolina on 14 April 1974 were also collected by Ms. Bissett. Unfortunately all these specimens list the collectors as simply “Bissett / Pritchard”. Likely more specimens collected by Bissett will be found as we continue to catalog our collections.
Carol Sue Bissett was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ruth E. Cummings and Orville R. Bissett. Ms. Bissett earned her B.A. from the University of Connecticut in 1973. She enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973, and earned her M.A. in 1975 under the direction of Dr. William C. Dickison. The title of her Master’s thesis was “The morphology and relationships of Oncotheca balansae.” 1 The bryophytes in NCU’s holdings were collected in the spring of 1974; she may have taken a bryology course with Dr. Norton G. Miller who was teaching at Carolina at that time.
Bissett’s bryophytes all have her maiden name on the labels, whereas her Masters thesis is under “Carol S. Carpenter” so she and George R. Carpenter probably married in 1975. An obituary for George E. Carpenter (1923-2013) of Coventry, Connecticut, mentions his son, Lt. Colonel (Ret.) George Roger Carpenter of Beavercreek, OH as a survivor, as well as the fact that George E. was predeceased by his daughter-in-law, Carol Bissett Carpenter.3 Carol Bissett Carpenter died on 12 January, 1982 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida 4 and is buried in Center Cemetery, Coventry, Tolland County, Connecticut.2
SOURCES:
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Alumni Records.
2. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Carpenter&GSiman=1&GScty=23084&GRid=90884629&
accessed on 15 January 2015.
3. George E. Carpenter Obituary. Obits for Life. http://www.obitsforlife.com/obituary/661032/Carpenter-George.php accessed on 15 January 2015.
4. Carol Bissett http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/d/a/n/Dawn-Lyons-Daniels/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0307.html accessed on 15 January 2015.