Carol Jean Curran Crankshaw

Carol Curran Crankshaw slipped peacefully into eternity on December 30, 2023. A celebration of life service will be conducted at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 7, 2024, in the chapel of Edo Miller and Sons Funeral Home. A time for reminiscing, fellowship, and refreshment will follow.

Born July 1, 1938, to the late John Lawrence and Evelyn Foerst Curran in Cincinnati, Ohio, Carol and her family moved to Neptune Beach, Florida in 1948. After graduating from Duncan U. Fletcher High School in 1956, Carol headed to Stetson University on a full academic scholarship. During these years, she had become acquainted with a charming lifeguard and State Track champion, Tommy Crankshaw, and they married in 1957.

Tom and Carol built a home in Jacksonville, Florida, and later in 1970, moved to Brunswick, Georgia. Life with their three children, Bill, Linda, and Larry, revolved around Church, school, scouting, and baseball. The Crankshaw home was always open to the neighborhood and youthful friendships.

Later in 1986, with an empty nest, Tom and Carol moved to Savannah. As a member there of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Carol served in the Order of the Daughters of the King until devoting herself to the Kairos Prison Ministry at Pulaski State Prison for women for nearly twenty years. A self-identified Child of God, we can only imagine with what kind and loving nature Carol brought the real assurance of faith and forgiveness to those whose unfortunate path brought them to Pulaski. Her quiet smile, merry temperament—and yet a firm intolerance to foolish noise—underscored the simple wisdom and dignity of her faithful soul.

In the last three years of her life, frailty confined her and her ministry to a warm, welcoming smile for her family and all those who came to attend to her needs. Much loved by her caretakers and the residents at Bryan County Health and Rehabilitation Center, when her time came to pass over, she walked as gently and sweetly as would have been expected of her nature.

She was preceded in death by her husband William Thomas Gentry Crankshaw, Sr. She is survived by her sister and brother-in-law Judy and Henry Crews of Gainesville, FL and sister-in-law Michelle Crankshaw Garrett of Orlando, Florida; her three children William (Bill) T. G. Crankshaw, Jr. (Annette) of Sunbury; Linda Crankshaw Baker (Tom) of Staunton, VA; John Lawrence (Larry) Crankshaw (Traci) of Brunswick; her grandchildren Cori Crankshaw Thomas (Kodie), Cole Lawrence Crankshaw, Mary Katherine Baker, Cate Calhoun (Denis Witek), Ansley Calhoun Mays (Larry), and Andrew Calhoun (Rachel); eleven great-grandchildren, and an abundance of much loved nieces and nephews.

All will miss her, but all will remember her abiding kindness, generosity, and unconditional love.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Kairos of Georgia, P.O. Box 63, Kathleen, GA 31047 or Taylors United Methodist Church, 766 Old Jesup Highway, Brunswick, GA 31520.