Laura Talent Pratt

Wadesboro – Mrs. Laura Talent Pratt peacefully entered her eternal home on July 5, 2021, at the age of 95, while a resident at Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement Community in Winston-Salem. A service to celebrate Laura’s life will be held at 11:00AM Friday at Leavitt Funeral Home with Rev. Stacey Lundy officiating. Interment will be private. The family will greet friends following the service. Born in Anson County on January 20, 1926, Laura was the seventh of nine children born to William D. Talent and Melissa Catherine Faulkner Talent. She married the love of her life, Kermit M. Pratt, during her senior year of high school while he was home on leave from his US Army duties during WWII. Theirs was a marriage that would last for 63 years until Kermit’s death in 2006. An excellent high school student, Laura was asked to take a Federal Civil Service Exam, on which she scored very well and afterwards was encouraged to attend a secretarial training program in Washington DC. In an act of courage and patriotism, she left for Washington, did well in the training and was assigned to a job at the Pentagon working in the Department of Psychiatry within the Department of the Navy. She remained in her position for a time even after the war’s end. When Kermit’s military duty was complete, he went to be with Laura in Washington, DC and began working with the railroad at Union Station. Several years later, in the late 1940’s, they returned to Anson County to be closer to family. In September of 1951, Laura went to work for the NC State Agricultural Extension Office, a job she would work for the next 30 years alongside the likes of Brady Thomas and John Potter. An active member of First United Methodist Church, Wadesboro, Laura served many years in various roles of the church. She loved music and was a longtime member of the Chancel choir. Indeed, church was a very instrumental part of Laura’s life and she made it a point to involve her husband and daughter in church activities as well. For the past nearly 7 years, Laura has lived in the Arbor Acres Methodist Retirement Community, so she could be closer to her daughter. Laura loved and was greatly loved by the staff there, receiving excellent care, especially during the last years as her health declined. The family offers their heartfelt thanks to the caring staff of Arbor Acres for they have truly been family for Laura as well as for Hilda and Joe. Survivors include her devoted daughter and son-in-law, Hilda and Joe Madaras of Winston-Salem; her grandson, Jonathan Shue of Liberty, NC; her great-granddaughter, Emlyn Shue of Conover, NC; a sister, Lois Baker of Winter Park, FL; and many nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, Laura was predeceased by her loving husband, Kermit; her brothers, William, Earl, Vernon, and Dock Talent; and her sisters, Mary Jane Williams, Henribelle Ward, and Doris Ann Maynor. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial gift to First United Methodist Church, 118 E. Morgan Street, Wadesboro, NC 28170.