Dr. Patricia C. Caple

It is with an extremely heavy heart that we announce that Dr. Patricia C. Caple received her heavenly wings on Tuesday evening, November 25, 2025. Dr. Caple radiated with ethereal beauty, inside and out. She was a multi-talented, renaissance woman with unparalleled determination and strength. Her sense of style and art, and her encyclopedic knowledge of theatre arts was second to none. In the mid-sixties, while performing in professional summer stock theater, Dr. Caple formed the Second Ward Playmakers at the historic former Second Ward High School in Charlotte, NC. In the late sixties, with her late husband Dr. Horace B. Caple, she led the Shaw Players and Company at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC. In the mid-eighties, she embarked upon a new journey in her life and founded the Black Repertory Theatre at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. She served for several years as the president of the National Association of Dramatic Speech and Arts and has received numerous awards and accolades during her lifetime for her directing writing and performances. She was a devoted wife and confidant to her late husband. Her undeniable and doting love for her late daughter, Pamela Caple Mangum, and her son, Patrick Bruce Caple, will last for an eternity. Her understanding and appreciation for the universal struggles for justice, understanding and freedom for all serves as a beacon. She was a trailblazer, and an all-around super-woman.

Funeral Arrangements Are:

Wake:  5:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Friday, December 12, 2025, at the Lea Funeral Home Chapel, 2500 Poole Road, Raleigh, NC.
Funeral Service:  2:00 PM, Saturday, December 13, 2025, at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, 813 Darby Street, Raleigh, NC.
Interment:  Carolina Biblical Gardens, 1530 Creech Road, Garner, NC.