‘She was our family’

Martin Felton was adopted by Carnes’ grandmother when she was 9 years old, Carnes said, after her parents died. In that family, she had eight siblings, including Alfred, Arthur, Elmer, Leroy and James Smith, Dorothy Hall, Lillian Taylor and Olive M. Carnes.

“She wasn’t an adopted child; she was our family,” Carnes said. “She was my mother’s sister — that’s how they knew her. They made no difference. Zora was a go-getter. She never sat still. She was always eager to learn more, you know? She was truly a blessed person. She was a trailblazer.”

Carnes was very close to her aunt, traveling from the Valley to Washington to help her heal through surgeries for cataracts and a pacemaker.

“And then in 2006, I had open heart surgery,” Carnes recalled. “I had told her I was going for surgery. And she said, ‘I want to come up and spend a couple of weeks with you until you get back on your feet.’ And she did.”

In 1975, Martin Felton married Edward P. Felton Jr. and became stepmom to three teenagers.

Her stepson, Edward Felton, said “her way of rearing children was through lessons that would allow us to go and seek information.”

“When she was home, she was just a bonus mom,” Felton said. “She did not mash down her accomplishments. She always played down on her success, and allowed folks to shine much more brightly. I’ve learned so much more about her after her passing, that I lived through with her. She was a great, humble person and spiritual.”

Her life was already filled through awards and acknowledgments, Felton said, and helping others was part of her mission.

“When I look at her entire life: the things she said, the places she’s gone, the things she’s done, her being the last to receive, so others can be the first to receive and the light shining,” Felton said. “She did everything for everyone, and didn’t really care to have the light shined on herself.”