BY HATTIE FRANCIS/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
hattie.francis@gmail.com

FRANKLIN—Ruth Porter was treated to one last gift Tuesday as she was taken in a horse-drawn hearse from White Oaks Spring Baptist Church on Delaware Road to Southview Cemetery, her final resting place.

Porter’s nephew made sure his 92-year-old aunt got her wish.

“I did it for my wedding, and she always wanted to ride in it,” Porter said. “That’s why I gave her the horse and carriage.”

A lifelong resident of Franklin, Porter died Dec. 18 at age 92 while visiting her daughter in Fayetteville, N.C.

A planned Monday funeral was delayed a day after the area got more than 13 inches of snow.

Hundley Carriages of Richmond provided the horses and horse-drawn hearse for the procession.

“Under normal conditions, it would have been better,” said Terence Roundtree, director of Roundtree and Associates Funeral Home in Greenville, N.C. “The horses just had to pull a little harder.”

The procession started on Rose Valley Road, cut through Franklin on Armory Drive to College Drive and continued onto South Street and Bank Street and the church, where Ruth Porter was an usher for many years.

Among Porter’s survivors are three children, 12 grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.