Carmen Merita Bowers

Carmen Merita Baldrich Bowers, our beloved wife, mother, sister, grandmother and friend passed away peacefully at home in Moore, SC on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. 

Carmen Merita was born on November 22, 1940, in Cayey, Puerto Rico, a daughter to the late Juana Lopez and Arturo Baldrich.

After marrying and leaving her home in Puerto Rico and moving to South Carolina, Carmen Merita enjoyed working and serving others in sales at Aug. W. Smith in downtown Spartanburg. She felt her career move in a different direction and worked and retired with the State of SC, a 30+ year career, as Director of Telamon Corporation. She also served on the Spartanburg County Council with the Upstate Workforce Investment Board from 2008 to 2011.

Carmen Merita was an active member of St. Matthews Episcopal Church where she enjoyed participating with the Food Pantry. She loved all types of music and would enjoy dancing and shagging to the SC beats with her husband Jerry. She had a beautiful melodious voice where she was always singing. Some of her favorite hobbies were gardening, playing cards and knitting her lovely blankets. She enjoyed spending time with her special friends and her most favorite pastime was being with her loving family and doting dogs Dahlia and Ollie. 

Surviving is her devoted husband, Jerry Lee Bowers; her two loving daughters, Vanessa Ponder Smith (Richard) of Moore, SC, and Jacquelyn W. Griffith (Barry) of Pendleton, SC; her grandchildren, Matthew L. Wilson, Johnny R. Ponder, Jr., Katherine (Katie) E. Ponder and Chelsea Griffith Arrington (Jay) and step-grandchildren, Alexander C. Smith and Caroline S. Casey and her great-grandchildren, Emerald Arrington, Griffith Arrington and Olivia Wilson.

Carmen was predeceased by her siblings Carmen Luisa Baldrich Johnson, Aida M. Baldrich Lopez, Arturo Baldrich, Jose Baldrich and Provita Baldrich. 

The family wishes to express their sincere gratitude to Father Robert Brown, Rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and to the special in-home caregivers Ashley Miller, Sherrell Whitmire, Aaliyah Miller and Mialah Whitmire for their kindness, support and loving care. 

The family will receive friends from 10:00-10:45 a.m. Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at Floyd’s Greenlawn Chapel, 2075 East Main Street, Spartanburg, SC, 29307. Funeral service will follow at 11:00 a.m., in the Chapel, conducted by the Rev. Robert L. Brown. Burial will be in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, 1300 Fernwood-Glendale Road, Spartanburg, SC 29307.

The pallbearers will be Matthew L. Wilson, Johnny R. Ponder, Jr., Barry Griffith and Richard Smith.

The family will be at the home. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Matthews Episcopal Church Food Pantry, 101 St. Matthews Lane, Spartanburg, SC 29301.

Floyd’s Greenlawn Chapel