Lois Bell

QUEENS, NY - Lois Bell was born May 16, 1935, to the late Robert L. Carter Sr. and the late Anna Phinizy-Carter in Dunbarton, South Carolina, and entered into eternal rest on August 28, 2025. To this union, an additional five siblings were born: Robert Carter Jr. (deceased), Murray Carter (deceased), Lorraine Carter (deceased), Lillian Hawkins, and Fred C. Carter.

Lois attended school in South Carolina and graduated from Kelly Edwards High School in Williston, South Carolina. She was very popular and had lots of friends. A few years after graduating from high school, Lois relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y. to live with her aunt Katie Eubanks and youngest sister Lillian. This is where she met her husband, the late Milton Bell Sr., who predeceased her. They met in early 1960 and married soon after. They welcomed their first child, daughter Shirley Renee Bell (deceased), on November 23, 1961, and three years later, on January 20, 1964, their son Milton Bell Jr. During this time, they resided in Jackson Heights, Queens, and later relocated in 1978 to Lefrak City, Queens, where Lois remained until her untimely death.

Lois's first job was at Bulova in Queens, N.Y., and then she gained employment with the Workers' Compensation Board, which was initially located at the World Trade Center in Manhattan until it relocated to downtown Brooklyn. Lois had many friends, and everybody knew her. People she did not even know could sense her kind spirit and would just start conversations with her, and by the time they finished, Lois would know their whole life story. That's just the kind of person she was. When she retired, she kept busy from sunup to sundown, either going places with her friends, to the local casino, bus trips to Atlantic City (she kind of liked the casino-if you know her, you know), with her good friend Luz, her sister Lillie and family, or just out and about running errands. Her famous line was, "Call me. I might not be home. I got things to do." She also traveled every year back and forth to her hometown of South Carolina with her family. Lois loved her family very much – her children and especially her grandchildren, Rahmel and Chardae.

Lois was a faithful member of Mount Horeb Baptist Church in Corona, Queens, where she served faithfully for over 50 years. After she retired, she often worked at the pantry in the church, distributing food to the needy. She enjoyed helping others. She was a kindhearted, loving, giving type of woman who would give you the shirt off her back. Lois was a true missionary at heart. She devoted countless hours to taking care of friends, family, and elderly people in the neighborhood (as if she wasn't elderly herself). She was an incredible soul who lived and loved life to the fullest and will be missed.

She leaves to mourn her son, Milton Bell Jr. of Columbia, S.C.; her grandson, Rahmel Bell of Queens, N.Y.; her granddaughter, Chardae Bell of Charlotte, N.C.; her great-granddaughter, Zariyah Bell of Bronx, N.Y.; her sister, Lillian Hawkins of Hempstead, N.Y.; and her brother, Fred C. Carter of Williston, S.C.; as well as a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Services were held Friday, September 5, 2025 at 10 a.m. at Mt. Horeb Baptist Church in Queens, N.Y. with Pastor Gilbert Pickett officiating.