Charlie Lee Meeks Sr.

Charlie Lee Meeks, Sr., 89, passed away at home surrounded by his children on September 2, 2025, after a brief time in home hospice care.

A funeral service to honor Charlie’s life will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, September 6th at Munden Funeral Home, officiated by Rev. Jesse Wombles. Interment will follow at Gethsemane Memorial Park. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. For those unable to attend, the service can be viewed through his obituary page on Munden Funeral Home’s website. The service will remain on the Funeral Home website for 90 days.

Born on September 29, 1935, to William Ernest and Velma Mills Meeks, Charlie was the sixth of thirteen siblings. He was born and raised in Pitt County, North Carolina and one of twelve members of the graduating class of Stokes Pactolus High School in 1954. He was held back a year for being a left hander who could not learn to write with his right hand. We still cannot read his handwriting.

After high school, Charlie worked as a mechanic in several local garages. Friends set him up on a date with Dorothy Griffin of Blounts Creek, who would become his future wife. They dated for nearly five years before marrying on September 4, 1960.

Known to many simply as “Capt,” Charlie joined the North Carolina Department of Correction in 1958 as a prison guard, working the chain gang in Beaufort County. However, he served the majority of his 39 year career as the Superintendent of Carteret Correctional Center in Newport, NC. He never took a day of sick leave. The Capt was a stickler for policy, and if he called you into his office and told you to “Kick the conch and close the door behind you,” you knew a serious conversation was coming. Stern leadership aside, he commanded the respect of staff and inmates alike. During his career, he established the annual Inmate Family Picnic allowing inmates and their families to spend a full day visiting on the prison grounds and enjoying a barbeque dinner prepared by himself and community volunteers. Charlie also actively supported his community by serving in the National Guard, Carteret County Law Enforcement Officers’ Association, Newport Fire and Rescue, Newport Pig Cookin, Newport Little League, Newport Moose Lodge, and Newport Lions Club. Charlie was awarded the Governor's Order of the Long Leaf Pine to cap off his retirement from the State of North Carolina in 1997.

Capt Charlie lived a full life in retirement, focusing on his passion and talent for cooking whole hog barbeque under the team name Capt Charlie’s Cooks. Capt Charlie competed in countless NC Pork Council-sanctioned pig cooking contests across the state from the 1980s all the way up to his final Newport Pig Cookin Contest in April 2025. He and “Ole Faithful,” his legendary pig cooker made from an old oil drum (and later, his BQ Grills cooker), won over 200 trophies, including the 2001 NC Pork Council State Championship and the inaugural NC Pork Council Pitmaster of the Year award in 2015. Capt Charlie also received the NC Pork Council Sportsmanship Award, an honor voted on by his fellow competitors. He is one of two recipients to receive a NC Pork Council Grand Slam Award, given to Chief Cooks who place first in the State Championship, Newport, Kinston, and Washington contests. He was the godfather of competition whole hog barbeque in Eastern NC and a mentor to many cooks, including his son, Lee, and several of his grandchildren. Yes, we have the sauce recipe, and no, we will not be sharing it.

He is survived by his beloved wife of nearly 65 years, Dorothy; daughter, Charlotte Meeks Turnage; son, Charlie Lee Meeks, Jr. (Erin); brother, Carlton Meeks (Judy); nieces and nephews; and grandchildren, Aliceson Turnage (fiancé, Chance Ferguson), Rachel Amburn (Jordan), Charles Turnage (Rebecca), Griffin Meeks, and Ella Grey Meeks.

In addition to his parents, Charlie was preceded in death by his brothers, David, Franklin, Ed, Johnnie, James, and William Meeks; sisters, Barbara Williams, Helen Morris, Catherine Mills, Elizabeth McKinney, and Joann Valencia; son-in-law, Leon Turnage; as well as many sisters- and brothers-in-law, nieces, and nephews.

The family would like to thank Robin Lingle and the staff of Carteret Healthcare Home Hospice program, as well as caregiver Amy Parish, for their care and guidance during this time.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Newport Pig Cookin, P.O. Box 1265, Newport, NC 28570, which will support future contests and many local, community nonprofit organizations.

Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www.mundenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home & Crematory in Morehead City, NC.