- Date Of Birth: November 17, 1948
- Date Of Death: October 18, 2022
- State: Minnesota
On Tuesday, October 18, 2022, Carol Marie Carlson died peacefully at the age of 73 at her residence in the memory care unit of the Villa Saint Vincent in Crookston, Minnesota. She had been suffering from the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease over the last couple of years, but other medical complications led to her being placed on hospice care less than a week before her death.
Carol was the fourth daughter and youngest of nine children born to Pete and Lena (Ringius) Carlson on November 17, 1948. Raised on her parents’ farm in Golden Valley Township of Roseau County, MN, she graduated from Roseau High School in 1966 and was described in her senior yearbook as “duteous.”
She enrolled at Bemidji State University in the Fall of 1966 and graduated Summa Cum Laude (with highest honors) in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in History and Social Studies and a minor in English. She later went back to BSU to earn her Bachelor of Science for teaching those same subject areas, as well as a degree in Library Science/Audio Visual. The family farm and her brothers were instrumental in providing for her education.
Her first teaching position was in Brockton, Montana where she worked from 1976 to 1979 followed by several years of teaching in the Warroad Public Schools in Warroad, MN. The majority of her teaching career, however, was with the Indus Public Schools west of International Falls, MN.
For 21 years she spent the school year in Indus and the summers back at the farm near Wannaska in Roseau County. Her main position at Indus for all those years was as an English teacher (No wonder why she had shelves and shelves of books at her home!), but she was highly involved in many other areas of school life. She spent some of her years as the advisor for the school newspaper and yearbook, speech and drama, student council, National Honor Society, and prom. She was the facilitator for the spelling bee and career fairs, and also worked as the librarian for a short time. She was well liked by staff, students, and their families. The students even gave her the nickname of “Curly.” The student yearbook staff dedicated the yearbook to her the year that she retired, using the word “dedication” to describe her. Much to the sadness of the Indus community, she retired in 2006 after 30 years of being an educator in all rural communities.
Though she was engaged once, matrimony and children were not goals she pursued. Truthfully, while she enjoyed working with older students, being an organized and somewhat fastidious person with everything having its place she did not have much tolerance for the ways of little children. She was, however, smart, witty, and very independent. She had strong convictions and believed in the importance of education. She loved reading (even to her last days, she read letters out loud), adored animals especially her dogs (She always needed to have a dog!), delighted in decorating for Christmas, and always enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors. She also taught herself how to use a computer and send email, which she used to stay in touch with friends and family.
Ten years ago in 2012, she made the decision that following her death, her body is be bequeathed and donated to the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences (UNDSMHS) in Grand Forks, ND.
She was preceded in death by her parents Pete (d. 1978) and Lena (d.1986); her sisters Norma Anderson (d. 2006), Gwen Nelson (d. 1986), and Sharon Orvis (d. 2022); her brothers Ernest (d. 2011), Dennis (d. 1990), Lowell (d. 1978), and Allan (d. 2020); her nephews Todd Orvis (d. 1979), Jon Nelson (d. 1986), Jeff (d. 2017) and Michael Carlson (d. 2020).
She is survived by her brother Clayton and his wife Barbara (Monson), her sisters-in-law Linda (Lovejoy) and Linda (Moe), and many, many cousins, nephews, nieces, and their children scattered across the country as well as a handful in Canada.
