Charles Julian Vaughan III is born on October 16, 1939 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, to John Southgate Vaughan and Hannah Bailey Heptinstall of Woodland, NC Graduating from the local Woodland-Olney School, he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor in Business Administration in 1962. During his four years at Chapel Hill, he joined the brotherhood of the ATOs where he developed a cadre of lifelong friends. In the fall of 1962, he enrolled in UNC-CH law school and three years later, received his Juris Doctor.

In 1965, Charlie was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) where he provided a full range of legal solutions to military personnel for three years.

After military service, Charlie joined the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office where he handled criminal cases and enjoyed being a bachelor in the big city of Charlotte. Three years later, he moved to Scotland Neck to set up a practice of general law. His daughter Linnell was welcomed during a short first marriage.

In 1974, he moved back to his hometown of Woodland NC and established a general law practice under his own name. A year later, Charlie married Karen Jean Dunlap who was raised in Charlotte but was living in Raleigh at the time. They took on the task of renovating a Vaughan Family farmhouse centered in the Vaughan farmlands. Their sons, Charles Julian Vaughan III, born 1977, and Matthew Dunlap Vaughan, born 1979, expanded their family. His private practice flourished and soon, Charlie took on the additional role as Northampton County Attorney, serving for over thirty years. In his legal career, he was respected for his integrity and known to be a hardheaded fighter for justice.

Charlie Vaughan loved rural, small town country life, and had a variety of hobbies including tennis, searching for Native American artifacts in surrounding farm fields, traveling abroad, sailing, tending roses and asparagus, and old houses. In the 1970s, he assumed ownership of his mother’s family home place in Halifax County and along with Karen, transformed it into an outstanding example of Federal architecture which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Before moving to the Heptinstall House, Charlie, along with a crew of friends from all parts of North Carolina, used the house as a social and hunt club, aptly named The Heptinstall House Preservation Society. In 2012, Charlie and Karen sold their Woodland home to a family member and moved to the Heptinstall House. Although the Heptinstall House Preservation Society was disbanded, friends continued to visit and share great times.

Not much of a fan of dogs in his youth, he became a firm lover of his wife’s standard poodles, Beau, Bangs, Olin, and Tucket (actually his son’s dog who joined in farm pack). Beau, particular, practiced law with Charlie, accompanying him to his office very day and attending county meetings in Jackson. Charlie was often noticed riding around the county in his Lexus with a large black poodle in the front seat beside him.

Charlie loved his family, his extended family including five siblings, their spouses, and children. Family gatherings were regularly held at the Heptinstall House. He loved sitting on bleachers watching his children at sports events but often lost his cool, getting involved with sideline coaching. He reveled in the fact that all three children became alumni of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and have gone on to made their mark in the business world.

We celebrate the eighty-six years of the lifetime of Charlie Vaughan. He lived his life to the fullest involving himself is all kind of antics which became fodder for his story-telling. He stubbornly passed away on April 14, 2026. Rest in Peace.

Charles Julian Vaughan is survived by his wife, Karen Dunlap Vaughan, his daughter Linnell Vaughan Compton and husband Chris of Raleigh and their two children, Kennedy and Sarah Katherine, his son Charles Julian Vaughan III and wife Lana Johnson Vaughan of Cary, NC and their two children, Leo and Parker, and his son Matthew Dunlap Vaughan of Rocky Mount and significant other Katie Dunn and his two children Kivett and Stalls. His siblings include Johnny Vaughan (deceased) and wife Billie of Woodland, Joe Vaughan and wife Mary Lou of Pinehurst, Hannah Vaughan and husband Norm Robinson of Wilmington, Cola Vaughan and wife Megan of Nags Head, and Fred Vaughan of Durham as well as a host of nieces and nephews.