Charles Warren Nanney 88 passed away on Nov. 22 in Forest City NC. Born in 1921 the youngest of 17 half-siblings he grew up in Union Mills NC and attended Alexander School before entering Wake Forest College in 1938. There he especially enjoyed literature and mathematics but with World War II imminent he enlisted as an aviation cadet in 1941 pursuing what became a lifelong passion for flying. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor that year he and his beloved Rachel Johnson of Rutherfordton eloped on Christmas Day 1941. As a second lieutenant celestial navigator in the Army Air Corps Charles served first as an aviation instructor then as navigator of a B-17 bomber outfitted for air-sea rescue. With the 5th Air Force in the 3rd Emergency Rescue Squadron he completed 34 missions in the Pacific theater flying his final mission photographing Hiroshima after its bombing. Returning home a 1st lieutenant he and Rachel moved to Raleigh NC in 1946 where he completed a degree in textile engineering then returned to Spindale Mills where he became head of the Industrial Engineering Department. During those years two daughters were born to Charles and Rachel—Judith in 1946 and Lisa in 1951. Feeling called to the ministry however Charles resigned from the textile industry and he and Rachel took their young family to Louisville Ky. to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he earned a postgraduate degree. After graduation in 1955 he became pastor of Swepsonville Baptist Church near Burlington NC where a third daughter Tracy completed their family in 1957. The following year Charles accepted a pastorate in Greenville SC at Hampton Heights Baptist Church where he and Rachel served for sixteen years. In 1974 Charles become pastor of First Baptist Church of Newberry SC where he ministered until retiring in 1981 after heart bypass surgery. Returning in retirement to Union Mills where he and Rachel had built a house they gardened travelled and became active in Round Hill Church which his family had attended when he was a boy and later at First Baptist in Rutherfordton. In retirement he served as interim pastor at Hampton Heights as well as at Calvary Baptist and Fellowship Baptist in Rutherfordton. When Rachel became ill with Alzheimer's disease Charles ultimately moved into a Winston-Salem retirement community to stay beside her when she entered a nursing home there nearer the homes of their daughters Judith (Ginn) Lisa and Tracy. In the years after Rachel's death in 2005 Charles remarried; he and his second wife Grace McCaskill a lifelong friend to Charles and Rachel lived at Rolling Green Retirement Community in Greenville until Grace's death in 2007. Despite recurrent health problems Charles energetically assumed new forms of ministry after he returned in 2007 to his home community in Rutherford County NC. There he taught Bible classes and Sunday School at his church First Baptist in Rutherfordton; he ministered in song and story to those in local nursing homes; he was instrumental in establishing and marshalling resources for the Union Mills Learning Center. Musically gifted he composed published and recorded sacred songs. A talented writer and speaker he wrote and published privately a family history as well as a volume soon forthcoming of his sermons poems and stories of local history. He still enjoyed growing flowers feeding the birds playing the keyboard and autoharp quoting poems and scripture and telling stories of his experiences in World War II and he would take flight in a small plane at any opportunity. The profound sense of loss felt by his family and all who knew him will be comforted by the knowledge that he was in his own words "an old navigator who found his way home at last." Charles Nanney is predeceased by his parents Albert and Harriet Ellis Byrd Nanney and by his seventeen half-siblings. Besides his daughters he is survived by two grandsons Adam and Stuart Ginn; four great-grandchildren—Kate Isabelle and Ava Ginn and Charles Ginn all of Winston-Salem; and numerous extended family in and around Rutherford Cty. A graveside service for the family was held at 10:30 AM Dec. 7 at Round Hill Church Union Mills followed by a memorial service at 1 PM at First Baptist Church Rutherfordton. A memorial service did also take place at 1 PM Dec. 15 at Hampton Heights Baptist Church Greenville SC. In lieu of flowers memorials may be sent to Union Mills Learning Center P.O. Box 210 Union Mills NC 28167 (unionmillslearningcenter.org); to Round Hill Baptist Church 6585 Hudlow Rd. Union Mills NC 28167 (roundhillbaptistchurchnc.org); or to First Baptist Church of Rutherfordton 246 N. Main St. Rutherfordton NC 28139 (firstbaptistrutherfordton.com).