Benton Hair Walton, III, 89, of Chadbourn peacefully departed this life on Friday, January 30, 2026, at his residence. 

Mr. Walton was born on July 10, 1936, son of the late Dr. George Britain Walton and Liza Cameron Witherspoon Walton. Mr. Walton was also preceded in death by his brother, Dr. George Britain Walton Junior. 

Mr. Walton attended Darlington School in Rome, Georgia for two years in high school and returned to Chadbourn to graduate from Chadbourn High School in 1954. He graduated from Duke University in 1958, where he received a degree in political science and became a lifelong fan of Duke basketball and football. Following his time at Duke, he enlisted and honorably served his country in the United States Army. He then attended the School of Law at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, graduating in 1963. Mr. Walton returned to Chadbourn after law school and joined Edward L. Williamson to form the firm Williamson & Walton in Whiteville where he practiced law for almost sixty years. While he was a devoted family man, he was equally passionate about his law practice and looked forward to every day he spent at his office. 

Mr. Walton was an active community member as well, serving as a founder and director of two golf courses and a savings and loan. He also served as a chair and member of the Board of Directors for a local private school for approximately twelve years and a member and chair of the local Board of Directors for a regional bank for almost three decades. He was a faithful member of Chadbourn Presbyterian Church where he taught Sunday school and served as deacon, elder and clerk of the session for many years. He was the Town Attorney for Chadbourn for over two decades and a member of the Chadbourn Rotary Club. As he stated in an article in a North Carolina State Bar publication in 2013 reflecting on his fifty years of law practice, “In retrospect on both my career as a lawyer and life in general, I have no regrets, nothing but fond memories, and if I could change anything, there would be very few. In closing I say, to all of this I give God the glory.”

The surviving family includes his loving wife of fifty-nine years, Kathryn “Kitty” Kelly Walton; son, Benton H. Walton, IV of Nags Head; daughter, Cameron Walton Wright of Charlotte; and grandchildren, Liza Caroline Wright and Catherine Steele Wright. 

Visitation will be Friday, February 6, 2026, at 1:00 pm and the funeral service will be at 2:00 pm, both at Worthington Funeral Home in Chadbourn. A private burial will be held at Chadbourn Memorial Cemetery.

The family would like to thank the nurses and staff of Lower Cape Fear LifeCare for the outstanding service they provided. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to Lower Cape Fear LifeCare Foundation, 1414 Physicians Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina 28401 (lifecare.org) or to Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (giving.billygraham.org).