Photo: Tennessee State Representative Mike Carter (R) Ooltewah
Photo Credit: tn.gov / background: CC
Published May 27, 2021
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Hamilton County, TN – Yesterday, the Hamilton County Commission honored Tennessee Representative Mike Carter, who passed away on May 15, 2021.
The resolution to honor Carter was postponed from the May 19th meeting, at the request of District 7 Commissioner Sabrina Smedley, in order to give the family of Representative Carter the opportunity to attend.
Smedley said, “Mike was a friend. He was my state representative. He was Commissioner Bankston’s state representative and friend. And he was the judge that I trusted to swear me into office in 2018, but he was so much more than that. He was a mentor to me. He was someone that when I needed advice on something I could reach out to. And not only get advice, but trust his advice.”
“He was committed to the people he served…He was truly of the people. When Mike went to Nashville, he never caved into special interest groups or lobbyists. He kept the people’s interests at the forefront at all times. He truly served the people and that is so rare today,” Smedley stated.
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District 9 Commissioner Chester Bankston said, “Mike was one of my best friends. He never failed to answer my calls, which was several times because I needed his advice a lot. He’s a man I’ll never forget…The last time he called me, when I made the announcement I was retiring, he called me that day, he could hardly speak but he still called me and told me how much he appreciated me and my service. I will miss him forever.”
Carter’s son said, “My dad was a hard-worker, he enjoyed the job and he really didn’t care too much about who got credit and I really believe that made him a good public servant, that was part of it anyway.”
Joan Carter, Mike Carter’s widow, said, “He was so good at seeing potential in so many people, like a lot of people in this room.”
District 1 Commissioner Randy Fairbanks said, “I used to always love to talking to Mike because you knew you were going to get a little bit of humor but a lot of wisdom…The two words I would use to describe Mike Carter was Honesty and Integrity. When Mike told you something there was no fact-checking to be done. When he told you something, you could take it to the bank.”
District 5 Commissioner Katherlyn Geter said, “He was genuine and you don’t see that often.”
Mayor Jim Coppinger thanked Carter’s family for sharing Mike with Hamilton County and the state of Tennessee.
“I know when people are in public service, for as long as he has been, it’s always taxing on the family.”
“Over the past couple of years, particularly last year, there was a number of pieces of legislation that might not even have been related to Hamilton County that other people were doing but Mike would always call me and say ‘Are you aware of this piece of legislation?’ He would always make sure to protect the people, the citizens of Hamilton County, so there wouldn’t be any pieces of legislation that would be passed and hurt people here,” Coppinger stated.
Joan Carter stated that the Commission’s tribute to Carter meant so much to the healing process.
