Lana Cartwright

Born in Alpena, on Feb. 25, 1944, to Leonard and Geraldine Piper, Lana grew up in Alpena, but lived in a number of cities in Michigan, on Marco Island, Florida and even in Munich, Germany for a time.

After graduating from Catholic Central High School (Class of ’62), she entered the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids Convent (Marywood Campus) for two years where she continued to study art. Following the convent and before returning college, she married her high school sweetheart James Lee Seabert Jr. with whom she had her only child, Kerrie Lynn (born 1967). By the early 1970s, she was a single mother (an absolute rock-star mom) with a full-time job and a young child. In order to continue her college education (she earned an associate’s degree from Alpena Community College) Lana worked with ACC and Ferris State University in order to get her bachelor’s degree via “distance learning” some 40 years before it was “a thing”. Proof of her forward-thinking, fearless determination and unwillingness to ever take “no” for an answer when it was something she really wanted or needed for herself or her family.

A gifted creative, Lana enjoyed art, and arts and crafts of all sorts from pen & ink, making miniature dioramas and painting (acrylic, oil and watercolor) to scrapbooking, flower arranging and candle making. She loved decorating for parties and event planning, she was a wedding planner decades before the term was coined.

Early in her work life, Lana did social work for several years before she and her daughter moved to Florida (Lana was never shy about venturing out and trying new things). There, she worked in real estate (eventually earning an RE license) and enjoyed island life. Missing weather that included four seasons, their extended family and “home”, the two moved back to Alpena. She also worked for AAA as a travel agent for many years (affording her, her friends and family more travel both in the US and abroad). She retired from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) where she worked in services. One of her many “duties” included decorating new facilities and VIP quarters as the base built new buildings. She was responsible for everything from paint colors, furniture and carpeting to the last elegant art and throw pillow — making her quite popular among local merchants because she believed in buying locally.

It was through her long-time participation in military support that Lana met Roy Cartwright Jr., her husband of 30 years, at a US Air Force/Air Guard event he was in attendance for from downstate. He grew up in Westland, she in Alpena and neither wanted to move. They made their relationship work by doing a whole lot of driving on the weekends and every holiday. When Roy retired from Wayne Westland Schools the two decided to make Alpena their sole and permanent home. The couple did a great deal of traveling together on their Gold Wing–seeing many parts of the country including Branson Mo., Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands and going to Bike Week in Daytona many times.

Known for her generosity, of every kind, to nearly everyone she’s ever made contact with (and very often to people she’d never met) there wasn’t an event that Lana attended where she didn’t bring gifts of some sort, be that food, drink, treats or actual presents that were either fun or personal, or both and always wrapped beautifully and with lots of love. Also known for her sharp wit and sense of humor, she and her family still laugh about oft revisited stories like her birthday cake that had the wrong name on it; “Vert, vert…” (an old inside joke between her and Kerrie); and the infamous note scrawled on toilet paper that she later had mounted to a custom-made toilet paper holder given to its author, a “reply in kind” of sorts…she never missed an opportunity to laugh heartily and she always got the joke.

In addition to her adoring husband and devoted daughter, Lana is survived by her only sibling, Debra and brother-in-law Steve Habermehl (author of said TP scrawl); their two children, Lana’s niece and nephew: Melissa Habermehl and Stephen Habermehl Jr.; their children and their grandchildren (who call her “Lana Bub-bye”); as well as Roy’s son Roy Jr., his wife Melissa and their two daughters.

Visitation will take place at the Bannan Funeral Home on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, from 10 a.m. until the funeral service at 4 p.m.

Inurnment: Holy Cross Cemetery.

In light of Lana’s generous spirit, please consider contributing to Hospice of Northern Michigan who were there to help her as she made her way from this adventure to her next.