Carolyn L. Jolly Larson

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Carolyn L Jolly Larson passed away Friday June 28, 2019 at Good Samaritan Society-Valley Vista, Wamego, KS at the age of 93. She was the daughter of Russell Everett Smith and Etta Pearl Scott Smith.  Carolyn was born on November 21, 1925 in Gallatin, MO.

At the age of six her family moved by train to Darlington, Mo as her father was section foreman for the Railroad and that is where she grew up. Carolyn was the next to the youngest of seven children.  She outlived all of her brothers and sisters and lived to be the oldest of any of her family; including her parents.  Carolyn graduated from Darlington High School with the class of 1943.

November 25, 1944 Carolyn married Harold Gene Jolly in Ft. Smith, AR, where he was stationed with the Army.  Three children were born to this union.  After Harold passed away on March 5, 1963, during that summer she met and fell in love with Darrell Franklyn Larson and they were married on November 9, 1963 in Wamego.  They celebrated 55 years of marriage in 2018.  She always said how lucky she was to find two good men to marry!

Carolyn loved to work crossword puzzles and to make latch hook rugs. During her youth she had a good singing voice and sang “His Eye is on the Sparrow” at several funerals in her hometown. Carolyn was a 60 plus year member of the Louisville United Methodist church and was the oldest member of the church.  She also belonged to the Heritage Club at Kaw Valley Bank and was a former member of the Wamego Senior Center.

Carolyn worked with her sister in Kansas City as a waitress for a few years.  When Harold became ill, she went to work at the Wamego Locker Plant for several years wrapping meat, briefly at Dyers IGA and Dick’s Thriftway wrapping meat. She retired after working as a cook for Wamego USD 320.

Survivors include her husband Darrell of the home, daughter Linda Jolly of Wamego, son Don and his wife Terry of Glendale, AZ and one Sister-in-law Marilyn Smith of Chillicothe, Mo., plus several nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Denver and wife Mildred Smith, Wendell and wife Frances Smith, Doyle and wife Maxine Smith and Jule Smith, and her sisters Freda and husband Ernest Maas and Inalee Miller and husband Bill Miller.

Visitation will be Tuesday, July 2^nd from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Stewart Funeral Home of Wamego.  Funeral services will be Wednesday, July 3^rd at 10:30 a.m. at Stewart Funeral Home, with burial to follow in Wamego City Cemetery.  In Lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the City of Wamego Christmas Light Fund or Valley Vista nursing home in Wamego and may be left in care of Stewart Funeral Home of Wamego, P.O. Box 48, 66547. Condolences may be left at www.stewartfuneralhomes.com.