The Reverend Carl James LeMon, 75, died on Saturday, March 29, 2025 in Suffolk, Virginia. After enduring the effects of Parkinson’s disease for more than fifteen years, his final breaths were peaceful, with beloved psalms and hymns sounding in his ears.
Carl was born on September 24, 1949 in Rochester, New York to the Reverends Robert and Marie LeMon. Along with his three older siblings, Charlene, Bob, and Calvin, Carl’s early life revolved around the churches his parents served, first in Rochester, then in Atco, New Jersey. Carl sang his way through childhood and adolescence in wooden church pews and on school stages and choral risers. In his collegiate choir at Evangel College in Springfield, Missouri, he met Carol Mae Bakke. They married in 1971 upon his graduation and sang together as Carl attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts. After seminary, the duo moved to Virginia, where they planted a church, Mechanicsville Christian Center, and had two sons, Joel Marcus and Micah James.
Carl left the ministry for a time in the early 1980s as his marriage ended. He continued to sing in dinner theatres around Richmond, Virginia, making ends meet waiting tables, working as a carpenter, selling hardware, and freelancing as an actor, model, and voice-over artist. While serving as a staff singer in a United Methodist church in downtown Richmond, Carl heard a gracious invitation to begin again a life in service of the church. He responded to the call and entered the ordination process in the United Methodist Church while serving congregations in and around Richmond.
While appointed to High Street United Methodist Church in Petersburg, Carl reconnected with Lynn Thompson at their 20th high school reunion (Mainland Regional 1968). They married in 1989. With the bishop’s appointment to Ebenezer United Methodist Church in the fishing village of Eclipse, Carl and Lynn moved to Suffolk in 1993. They found there a community always aware of the movement of the tides and deeply invested in the rhythms of life together.
Carl’s service to Ebenezer over 23 years was marked by a series of ambitious building projects, partnerships with community organizations, and sports and arts programs. Carl’s energies were focused on creating a community built by God’s love and nourished by the Holy Spirit through worship, the sacraments, and acts of grace. The relationships of love and care at Ebenezer were the legacies that he hoped would echo beyond his service as a pastor.
Carl was the last of his remarkable siblings, Charlene LeMon Nimmo, Bob LeMon, and Calvin LeMon.
Carl is survived by his wife Lynn, attentive to the very end, his sons Joel Marcus LeMon and Micah James LeMon and their mother Carol Bakke Mayer, daughters-in-law Rebekah Parker Close LeMon and Amanda Kate LeMon, his grandchildren, James Grant Parker LeMon, Ruth Caroline LeMon, and Levi Alexander LeMon, his siblings’ spouses, Del Wayne Nimmo, Kathy LeMon, and Jeanene Gerhardt, and wife Lynn’s siblings, John Thompson (Laura), Barbara Lentini, Deborah Thompson, and Nan Mooney (Timothy). He is also survived by his beloved nieces and nephews as well as by their spouses and children.
A memorial service of death and resurrection will occur on Saturday, April 12 at 3:00 pm at Ebenezer United Methodist Church (1589 Steeple Drive, Suffolk, VA 23433) with visitation at 2:15 pm and a reception following the service. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to Ebenezer United Methodist Church, with a memo designating the funds for the Carl J. LeMon Family Life Center.
