One of God's servants was welcomed home on April 20, 2021.

Carolyn Viola O'Neill was born on Sept. 9, 1924 in Joes, Colorado, the 2nd child of Charles and Pauline VanderZouwen O'Neill. She was born with a hole in her heart so a birth certificate was not issued at that time because the doctor did not believe she would survive.

Charley was working as a mechanic in Joes but moved his family shortly after Carolyn's birth to Sterling for a new mechanic job. In 1929, Pauline's father, Peter VanderZouwen passed away. Pauline and Charley made the decision to buy the VanderZouwen homestead north of Vona. Carolyn spent the rest of her childhood on the farm with her brother and 4 sisters. She was given the less desirable job of "chicken chores" and envied her older brother Richard and younger sister Dorothy who had the more desirable job of gathering cows with their horse Dolly.

Carolyn's love of sewing began at an early age. She used her creativeness and expanded her sewing skills when her youngest sister was born weighing 3 lbs. In the evenings Carolyn made clothing for her tiny sister by the light of the cook stove. She continued to sew for Bonnie during her years at home and later made Bonnie's wedding dress and 7 dresses for the bridal party.

Like others her age Carolyn grew up during the depression, dust bowl, and rationing during WWII. Most things were homemade, recycled, and repurposed. She continued with this practice her entire life.

Her grade school education took place in a 1 room school, Kit Carson District #69, a couple miles from the family farm. She and her siblings either walked or their dad took them in horse and wagon.

In those days, most county kids had to move into town to attend high school. Carolyn had to wait an extra year until her cousin Elaine Thorson could join her in 1939. The decision was made to take the girls to Cope because it was closer than Vona. Charley had a car by then so Elaine's father, Omor, and Charley took turns driving the girls to school on Monday and back home for the weekend.

Carolyn worked doing childcare, housework, working in the store and post office during her high school years and graduated in 1943 as salutatorian of her class of 8. She had developed an interest in becoming a stenographer and took classes at Emily Griffith in Denver.

In 1944 she was hired by Continental as a riveter and general mechanic. The military brought B29s to Buckley Air Base and subcontracted with Continental to remove some of the guns and replace them with cameras. At 110 lbs Carolyn was small enough to crawl into the narrow space of the plane, stand on her head, remove the bolts that held the guns then riveted the cameras into place. One rainy day she had crawled backwards as normal to exit the plane. When she stepped onto the metal pipe ladder her foot slipped and she fell 6 ft to the tarmac, breaking her back. The company doctor said she just had a sprain and sent her back to work. She continued to work for 2 weeks until her supervisor received permission to send her for x-rays with a specialist who put her in a back brace for 6 weeks. She continued to work for Continental through August of 1945, but no more crawling in and out of planes.

Her next job was working as a typist for Neusteters in downtown Denver, where she and her sister Betty shared an apartment.

In 1946 her dad told her the 1 room school that she had attended as a child needed a teacher, so she began her teaching career there with an emergency teaching license. Carolyn began correspondence courses through Colorado State College in Greeley and CU in Boulder to obtain a teaching degree. She continued to teach grades 1-8 at Kit Carson District #69 until 1950 when they consolidated with Seibert Grade School and she taught 5th and 6th grade for the 1950 & 1951 school year.

Carolyn married Melvin Williams in 1951 and moved to his farm north and east of Cope and taught in the Wiladel and Kirk Grade School through 1958. Melvin began his teaching career in 1955 at the Kirk Grade School with an emergency teaching license also. They both completed many correspondence courses and traveled to Akron, Yuma and Wray to take as many offcampus classes as they could.

They raised 7 children on the farm. As their family grew Carolyn put her teaching career on hold. Her days were full of taking care of kids and animals. At Christmas time her sewing machine ran from sunrise to sunrise. Each child received a new pair of pajamas and a set of underwear. Once a week the smell of freshly made bread greeted the family when they came home from school. Her biscuits and chocolate cakes were wonderful, all made with memorized recipes. Each child probably had the task of holding a squirming baby pig as she used her sewing skills to stitch shut a wound.

Melvin passed away in 1967 leaving her with 6 children still at home from the ages of 3-15.

Although she had taken many correspondence courses and off campus classes, 2 semesters of on campus classes were required to receive her much-wanted teaching degree. The logistics and financial burden of that plan proved to be insurmountable, so she began working the 11pm -7am shift at the Yuma Life Care Center. When David started school, Carolyn soon added a second 8-4 job as a secretary/bookkeeper. She would sometimes make it home in time to change clothes, but she had a change of clothes with her if she ran short of time. Upon returning home that evening, she would catch 2 to 4 hours of sleep before starting the whole routine over again. On the weekends and on her day off at the nursing home she cooked at the Western Steak House in Cope. Carolyn also cleaned houses, did sewing alterations and laundry for people.

In 1983 at the age of 59 she began a new career and began classes at NJC in Sterling to obtain a LPN license which she received in 1984. She began taking care of an elderly lady while attending college and continued providing in home care for elderly ladies for 20 + years.

After semi-retiring from this line of work she was asked to switch gears and provide childcare. Her day care kids Lauren, Alyssa, Elise, Andrew and Jayci were family to her.

Sewing out of necessity changed to a passion of sewing for charity. Garage sales, the Foursquare Church In His Name House, along with the Seventh Day Adventist Church give-away, provided her with many used dolls and toys to wash, repair, sew new clothes for, then return them to be given away at Christmas time. Well, most of them anyway. She kept a few dolls for herself. She sewed hundreds of Barbie doll clothes, baby doll clothes, along with renewing hundreds of stuffed animals. Lap robe quilts for the Vets was another project she enjoyed. 2019 was the last year she could tolerate sitting at the sewing machine for any length of time, but she completed 30 lap robes and a stack of pillowcases for Kids with Cancer.

Carolyn was also the Blood Bank Coordinator in Akron for several years and donated many pints of blood herself.

Carolyn was proceeded in death by her husband, Melvin; her parents and infant brother Charley; her mother and stepfather-in-law, Meta and Jacob Smith; her brother, Richard O'Neill; sisters Betty Kern and Marjorie Romine; grandson John Roye and nephews, Larry O'Neill, Calvin Kelley and Mike Greene; brothers-in law Bill Kern, Bill Romine, Dennie Greene, Cecil Williams, Jimmy Williams; and sister-in-law, Ina Gurss.

She is survived by her sisters Dorothy Greene of Windsor, Co., Bonnie and husband Lloyd Kelley of Grand Island, NE, and sister-in-law June Williams of Cope. Mourning her loss are her children and grandchildren: Christine and Ed Tyler of Olathe, CO, Diane and Dan Green of Akron, Mel and Sherry Williams of Pouslbo, WA, Chuck and Dawn Williams of El Cajon, CA, Steve and Susan Williams of Cope, Ed Williams of Akron and David Williams of Greeley.

Grandchildren: Larry Roye and daughter Olivia, Narinder Roye, Karen and Paxton Lee and children Jadyn, Cadince and Jackson; Josh Green and fiancee Renee Crossland; Michael and Ashley Green and children Adley, Aivry, Liam, and baby girl Green; Brannon and Kelsi Williams and sons Austin, Wes, and Sawyer; Brandi and Woody Russell and children Alex, Ethan, Lecy, and Olivia; Martha Grawey and children Charley and Limni Gonzalez and Carolyn's great great grandson Liam, daughter August, sons Dillon and Ben; Charlene and Jason Wilcox and daughters Alana, Alexis and Ryan; Barbara Jacobs and her daughters, Lily and Olivia; Sara and Mitch Stretesky and children Tori, Issac and Caroline; Megan and Danny Dominque and daughter Danielle; Trevor and Catherine Carroll and children Madison and Ben; and many nieces and nephews and other family members.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 11 a.m., May 10, 2021 at the Foursquare Church in Akron, CO with Pastor Pete Tel officiating. A lunch for friends and family will follow the service at Gemma's Crossing. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in her name may be given to: In His Name House (Foursquare Church) or the American Legion Auxiliary.