Annie Sherrill Neal Swink, age 41, of Cherryville, North Carolina passed away Friday evening, October 9, 2026, at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, Louisiana. She was born July 1, 1985, in Frankfurt, Germany to Keith Warren Neal and Julia Ann Dellinger Austin.
Annie was preceded in death by her son, Beydn Swink; step-father Allen Austin; and grandparents Roy and Pauline Dellinger. Survivors include her devoted husband of 18 years, Joshua Swink; her children Caleb Roy, Layla Jule, Maggie Laine, Jonas Bey, Warren Allen, Micah Jude Garlin, her mother Julia Dellinger Austin, her father Keith Neal, her grandparents Garlin and Elaine Neal of Crouse, and her brother Dale Ledford.

Annie graduated from New York University and from Goddard College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She wrote poetry and lived that poetry in the way she raised her seven children. Effortlessly, she carried the water for them, often moving through a silent house in the early morning and late night to make sure everyone was breathing and at rest. She raised babies, cats, chickens, rabbits, a few dogs, and even butterflies. Annie loved her babies beyond words and fought for the right choices when everyone around her was wrong, even if her choices were not always the popular ones.
Annie also was a lover of birds, Coca-Cola, New York City, Johnstown, and the beauty of a sunset across the Black River. She was always the first to champion a cause, especially childhood leukemia. Sometimes blunt to a fault, she was able to love others around her in one breath and remind them to fix themselves in the next, with more feeling than any other person alive. Annie lived her life in the voice and shadow of her old people and of the great Southern literary voices guiding her way. She spoke like she thought, and she thought deeply. She loved and lived by her strength, compelling and enduring. Annie did not lose to cancer; she rolled it for four and a half years beyond what any expert or doctor could imagine. She lived multiple lives and loved a world of people, all of whom know the world has lost one true, kind person, someone beyond emotion who transcended what the word love means. A person who carried the water.
Annie's family will receive friends from 2:00 to 3:45PM Saturday, October 24, 2026, at Carpenter-Porter Funeral Home. A Celebration of Annie's Life will follow at 4:00 PM, in the W. Cone Carpenter, Sr. Memorial Chapel with the Rev. Carrie Carpenter and Carol Ann Hoard officiating.
The burial will be held on Monday, October 26, 2026, at 11 am, in the Dellinger cemetery at 210 Baxter Road.
Memorials may be made to either Mays Clinic, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center at 1220 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030, or the American Cancer Society at cancer.org.
Condolences may be made to www.carpenterporter.com