Carolyn Joyce Hunt (née Leonard; born July 3, 1937) is an American educator and politician who, as the wife of Jim Hunt, served as the Second Lady of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977 and twice-served as the First Lady of North Carolina, from 1977 to 1985 and again from 1993 to 2001. She is the longest serving first lady in North Carolina history and she and her husband were the first governor and first lady to serve two four-year terms in North Carolina. As first lady, she served as the Chairwoman of the advisory council for the Governor's Office of Citizen Affairs, which promoted volunteerism throughout the state, and as Chairwoman of the North Carolina Friendship Force Program, a chapter of Friendship Force International, which promoted international student exchange programs in state public schools. In between her terms as first lady, she served on the board of directors and the executive committee of Friendship Force International and, in 1986, was elected to the Wilson County Public School Board.
Contents
Early life and education
Hunt was born Carolyn Joyce Leonard on July 3, 1937, in Mingo, Iowa, to Carl Avery Leonard and Norma Henderson Leonard. In her youth, she spent time living in Germany as an exchange student. She met her future husband, James Baxter Hunt II, at a National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry Youth Conference in Hamilton, Ohio. She was a member of the National Grange Youth Committee and he was serving as the president of the North Carolina Grange Youth Chapter. Hunt attended Iowa State Teachers College until she became engaged. She moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where she earned a bachelor's degree in primary education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Career and public life
In 1964, the Hunt family moved to the Kingdom of Nepal, where her husband served as a Ford Foundation economic adviser to the government. The family lived there until 1966. During this time, Hunt worked as a teacher at an international school. When they returned to the United States, Hunt continued to teach while her husband practiced law.
In 1972, her husband was elected lieutenant governor of North Carolina. In 1976, her husband was elected to his first term as governor. Her inauguration gown, a dress of pale gold organza designed by Mary Dixon, was placed in a collection of the North Carolina Museum of History. During her time as first lady, Hunt inspired her husband to create the Governor's Office of Citizen Affairs, in order to promote volunteer initiatives across the state. She was named chairwoman of the advisory council of the office, and promoted volunteerism throughout North Carolina. Hunt organized the "Right to Read" project in Wilson County, promoting child literacy in public schools. Once a week, she assisted fifth-graders in reading and comprehension skills at Wiley Elementary School in Raleigh. In 1977, while attending the National Governor's Conference, Hunt was introduced to the Friendship Force International, an international exchange project promoting world peace through sharing cultures. In 1979, she was appointed as the North Carolina Friendship Force Program's Chairwoman. Through the program, Hunt and her youngest daughter spent ten days with a family in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, before hosting the family in North Carolina.
Hunt did not initially make many changes to the North Carolina Executive Mansion during her husband's first term, with the exception of adding storm windows to the exterior and dampers in the fireplaces. She later proposed a revision to the North Carolina General Assembly's statute governing the Executive Mansion Fine Arts Committee, which was approved. After the passing of the proposal, Hunt renovated and redecorated the governor's library and had the screen porch made into a glass-enclosed morning room. She oversaw renovations to the institutional kitchen, added a first-floor waiting room, installed an automated lift at the front porch for handicapped guests, and restored and repaired antique furniture. Hunt also acquired new pieces for the mansion, including twelve Chippendale-style side chairs featuring needlepoint seats made by women throughout North Carolina. She located and framed photographs of all former North Carolinian first ladies who had lived in the mansion, putting them on display on a gallery wall.
Personal life
Hunt married Jim Hunt on August 20, 1958 and had four children: Rebecca Joyce Hunt, James Baxter Hunt III, Rachel Henderson Hunt, and Elizabeth Brame Hunt. The family owned a farm near Rock Ridge in Wilson County, North Carolina, where she and her children would spend at least two months every summer to have time away from the North Carolina Executive Mansion in Raleigh. On their farm, the family maintained two gardens, and Hunt would freeze and can vegetables grown in their gardens.
In 2015, Hunt and her husband received the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s Annual Jay Robinson Education Leadership Award.