(April 28, 1928 – February 21, 2015)
Carolyn returned to her Heavenly Home on February 21, 2015. She was born April 28, 1928, in Herrin, Illinois, to Homer G. Reinbold and Mary Eva Hopkins.
She spent her childhood and grew up in Herrin. She started taking violin lessons at the age of five and was very active in musical events throughout her life. She also played her flute and piccolo in the concert and marching bands. She attended Southern Illinois University on a music scholarship with her violin. She graduated from SIU with honors and joined the U.S. Army to study physical therapy.
While in physical therapy school, she also took flying lessons and got her private pilot’s license. She became a registered physical therapist in 1952. She spent two years in the U.S. Army and 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a physical therapist (except for two years when she was a member of the U.S. Air Force Pistol Team; the only woman ever assigned to that team). She retired from the military on July 1, 1972, as a Lieutenant Colonel, and moved to her home in Bloomington, Utah, that same day.
She lived in several places in the continental United States, in Alaska, Germany and the Philippines. She traveled extensively on all seven continents and in some seventy countries.
Carolyn was a convert, joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1965, and was an active member serving as a teacher in the sunday school and relief society, as the relief society secretary – treasurer and visiting teacher, temple ordinance worker, supervisor in data entry and patriarch transcriber. She liked to take the girls to camp in the summertime where she taught them archery. She was an avid genealogist.
Carolyn was a nature lover, appreciating and enjoying all of Heavenly Father’s creations. She never married. Her beloved pets were her “children”. She had “adopted” three sons (Korean, Mexican and American) and a daughter and three granddaughters (Korean, Chinese and Mexican).
Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents, brother Grover, and niece Kimberly. She is survived by two nieces: Cynthia Ann Blackledge of Morehead, Kentucky, Mary Elizabeth Schepman of San Jose, California, and one nephew: Stewart G. Reinbold of North Bend, Washington.
Carolyn wanted to thank everyone who helped make her life the full, rich, exciting life it was. There are copies of her autobiography “Life Is What You Make It” in libraries in Herrin, Illinois; Southern Illinois University; Dixie State University; and Washington County Utah Library.
Funeral Services
- Funeral services will be Thursday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. at the Metcalf Mortuary Chapel, 288 West St. George Blvd, St. George, Utah.
- A visitation will be Thursday, from 1-1:45 p.m. prior to services at Metcalf Mortuary.
- Internment will be at the Elmwood Cemetery in Centralia, Illinois with her parents, grandparents and other family members.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Metcalf Mortuary, 435-673-4221. For condolences, full obituary, and funeral listings please visit the Metclaf Mortuary website.