Carolyn Elizabeth (Carroll) Swenson died on October 24, 2018, at the age of 83. In her last months she was cared for by the good folks of Brookdale Northwest and Hospice Austin as she lived and died with Alzheimer’s disease.
She was born on May 5, 1935 to Ruby and Louis Carroll, who lived on a dairy farm outside of Dilley, Texas. She was the middle child of seven children. She played the clarinet and was the drum major for the Dilley High School band.
Shortly after high school graduation, she got a job as a telephone switchboard operator with Southwestern Bell in Cotulla, Texas. Her career continued with the telephone company her entire life (except for her time as a full-time mom and school volunteer), going from operator to account representative in Cotulla, Galveston, and Austin. During the 1961 Hurricane Carla, she was the remaining telephone operator on Galveston Island, maintaining contact with the mainland for rescuers and news crews for a flooded city.
In 1964, she met and married the love of her life, Zack Swenson. They were married on October 31st, and Zack would jokingly wonder if it was a trick-or-treat…although he has realized it was all a treat. One close family friend, a Lutheran pastor, married them in the chapel of St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, while they stole another best friend’s car to make their getaway to their honeymoon destination in Oxford, Texas. Together they enjoyed water-skiing on Lake Travis, fishing on Lake Buchanan, tubing on the Frio River, deer-hunting in Llano County, and camping in state and national parks. Their extended families merged into one for holidays and ordinary days, always figuring out how to extend the dining room table or the number of forks in the camping chuck-box to include more and more.
Carolyn and Zack had two children, Sharolyn and Steven. Carolyn sewed Halloween costumes, children’s clothes, dance costumes, Boy Scout patches, bride’s-maids’ dresses, and a wedding gown, costumes for church plays and Lutheran World Relief quilts. Their family and heart expanded to include son-in-law, Duke Browning, and three granddaughters, Navy, Hope and Summer Browning, with whom they shared old Fisher-Price toys, Kraft macaroni, Blue-Bell, Top Notch and infinite, mutual adoration.
Carolyn was baptized on May 23rd, 1935 and raised Roman Catholic. She was confirmed as a Lutheran when she married Zack, and was a faithful member of St. Martin’s Lutheran Church since 1964. She served with Altar Guild, Flower Guild, Women of the ELCA, and as a quilter for Lutheran World Relief.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Ruby and Louis Carroll; her in-laws, FG and Carolyne Swenson; two older brothers, Robert and Paul; a niece, Barbara Dolgener; and her granddaughter, Hope. She loved animals, especially three dogs, Pistol, Tinker, and Luger. She missed all these dear ones deeply until that part of her memory faded.
She is survived by her husband of nearly fifty-four years, Zack Swenson; her daughter and son-in-law, Sharolyn and Duke Browning; her son, Steven FG Swenson; her granddaughters, Navy and Summer Browning; her siblings with their spouses: L.J. and Helen Carroll of Pearsall; Rosemary and Milton Tater of Inez; Bill and Fran Carroll of Dilley; and Margaret Ann and Craig Siegfried of Easton, Pennsylvania; and thirteen nieces and nephews.
The funeral liturgy for Carolyn will be at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, 606 West 15th Street in Austin, on the Feast Day of All Saints, Thursday, November 1st, at 11am, with burial at Oxford Cemetery on Highway 16 in Llano County at 3pm. Officiating the funeral liturgy and committal is the Rev. Pete Sandager, pastor with St. Martin’s. Pallbearers are Philip Carroll, Sean Carroll, Bobby Carroll, Christopher Swenson, Jeff Pruitt, Gary Pruitt, and Clarence Lucas. There will be a visitation on Tuesday evening, October 30th from 6-8pm at Cook-Walden Funeral Home on North Lamar in Austin.
The family of Carolyn Swenson invites memorials to be given to the “Zack and Carolyn Swenson Legacy Fund”, which is managed by Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest. Annual distributions from the fund will benefit St. Martin’s Lutheran Church of Austin, Cross Trails Ministry, Lutheran World Relief, the Boy Scouts of America, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Alzheimer’s Association. Memorial gifts designated for this legacy fund should be made payable to Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest, noting Swenson Legacy Fund on the memo line, and mailed to: Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest, 103 12th St., Suite 201, Pflugerville, TX, 78660.
