Jasper Wayne Cannon
Jasper Wayne Cannon, 58, of Simpsonville, S.C. passed away on Thursday, November 9, 2023. He was born at Lenoir Hospital in Kinston, NC, and was the son of the late Jasper “Jack” Cannon and Grace Angela Wethington.
Wayne grew up in the St. John’s community near Grifton, North Carolina. He attended Grifton School and graduated from Ayden-Grifton High School in 1983. After high school, Wayne went on to serve in the U.S. Army. He completed basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He later went to Fort Sam Houston, Texas for his MOS training as a pharmacy technician. He served at Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, until his honorable discharge in 1987.
Wayne continued his education at Beaufort Community College and earned a degree as a Medical Laboratory Technologist in 1988. He worked in Hematology and the Blood Bank at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. He later graduated from Pitt Community College as a Registered Nurse in 1994. He continued his career at the hospital in the Emergency Room and later in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit.
Wayne was a lifelong learner and a person of diverse interests. He graduated with honors from North Carolina Wesleyan College, in Criminology and Psychology in 2017. He also earned his master’s degree in clinical psychology in 2020. He sought to use his education and background as a Peer Support Specialist and Educator at several institutions in North Carolina and South Carolina.
He enjoyed art, art history, and oil painting when he was not in school or working. He was a prolific artist who painted until his last hours. His departure was sudden, but friends and family are comforted that he is at peace.
Wayne is survived by his daughter, Chloe Cannon, of Greenville, siblings Dawn (Tom) Long, of Bryn Mawr, PA, and Joe Cannon and Karyn Reese, of Wirtz, VA, nieces and nephews, Jamie, Becky, Daniel, Andrew, Claire, Gavin and Owen. Other family members include Uncle Skookie & Aunt Jo-Ann White of Vanceboro, NC, and Uncle Floyd Cannon of Ayden, NC.
Wayne was preceded in death by his parents, Jack and Grace Cannon, grandparents, Dan and Elma “Ma-mammy” Wethington, and Joseph and Nannie Ruth Cannon.
A Memorial Service will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church on December 30th, 2023 from 3:00-5:00 pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Chloe Cannon at Ever Loved. https://everloved.com/life-of/jasper-cannon/obituary/
Death is nothing at all…I have only slipped away into the next room…I am I and you are you…Whatever we were in each other that we are still. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone; wear no forced air of solemnity or sorry. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the house-hold word it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is absolutely unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near just around the corner. All is well.
(Canon Scott Holland).
May the masters embrace you in death as you embraced them in life. Rest in Peace Wayne.
Louise Ciaruffoli