Carol Ann Hunt

Carol Ann Hunt, 85 years of age, was joyously welcomed into her Savior’s arms on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. Born in Olean, New York on June 20, 1939, to the late Robert Weldon and Christine Hunter, she was the second oldest of six children. Her family resided in various locations around New York State including Olean, Buffalo, and Knapp Creek. At eight years old, Carol and her family moved to the Southern Indiana area.

While attending New Albany High School, mom met her future husband Robert (Bob) Hunt. They were married on December 29, 1956, and enjoyed 61 loving years of marriage before his death in 2018. They completed and complimented each other throughout the years, leaning on each other through both the good times and the stressful ones. It was pure joy to watch them waltz together in each other’s arms, everyone stopping to watch their gracefulness and the obvious beauty of their love and faithfulness as they stepped in harmony with each other.

Mom was a loving wife, sister, aunt, and friend. She was a mother to seven children, Godmother to many nieces and nephews, and “mom” to a host of “adopted” kids we brought home on a regular basis. She was a homemaker extraordinaire, a seamstress, gardener and canner, cook, voracious reader, businesswoman, wedding planner, and so much more. Mom was a tireless advocate for education, helping her children each night with homework, working with those with learning disabilities in summer school programs, taking college classes herself in writing and poetry, and working untold hours as a preschool teacher’s aide in her daughter Terrie’s classroom. Mom’s faith and trust in Jesus Christ as her Savior was the defining element in her life, serving to carry her through a difficult childhood and sometimes hard family times. It influenced every decision she made. She and dad led us kids in the direction of Jesus Christ by the way they lived their lives, taking us to church and Sunday School every week, keeping us active in church youth programs and VBS, and enrolling us in Christian grade schools through the eighth grade. Mom was most recently a member of Grace Lutheran Church in New Albany, where her involvement in various activities included leading the Food Pantry, making VBS banners every summer for many years, attending adult Sunday School, supporting the preschool, and donating thousands of toys, articles of clothing, games, bikes, dolls, puzzles, etc. for the church’s Christmas baskets. She also completed a class offered through her church and trained to work as a disaster relief agent. She and dad received the “Giants in Faith” Award for helping the less fortunate in the local community.

Along with her sisters and family friends, mom also belonged to a women’s club that played Bunco every month. Each member rotated hosting the group and providing a meal. Many nights, we drifted off to sleep listening to the sounds of their laughter and the clatter of dice rolling across the tables. This Bunco Club has continued to meet for over 60 years, creating and strengthening lasting friendships and so many memories.

Mom helped clothe and feed her family with her sewing and gardening skills. She spent many hours with dad and us kids working in the half-acre garden, planting seeds, cultivating, hoeing and pulling weeds, and harvesting the fruits and vegetables. Then came the processing and canning of the tomatoes, sauces, juices, grapes, corn, potatoes, beans, broccoli, squash, strawberries, and many other items. The basement shelves and freezer were always bursting with the bounty harvested from the garden. It seemed to us that her sewing machine was in constant use as she created pants, tops, dresses, leisure suits, Halloween costumes, dolls and assorted stuffed animals, and wedding and bridesmaid’s dresses. Her sewing skills were in high demand from many of her other family members. In addition to her sewing, gardening, and reading, mom loved collecting antique glassware and traveling. After introducing us kids to the joys(?) of long family vacations in our Country Squire station wagon and pop-up camper, mom and dad began to enjoy many long road trips by themselves to Alaska, cruises to the warmer climates of the Caribbean, visits to every province in Canada, and travels through most states in America as they visited us kids scattered from coast to coast. They enjoyed many hours together strolling through antique malls and attending estate auctions, searching to supplement dad’s collection of old tools, and her own glassware, bell, figurine, and teacup collections.

Along with her parents, mom was preceded in death by her husband Bob, her daughter Kelly Hunt and grandson Matt Hunt, and her brother Bobby Weldon and sister Nancy Bale. She is survived by her children, Debbie Gill, Kathie Hunt, Robbie Hunt (Kim), Terrie Robinson, Tammie Beitz (Mark), Scott Hunt, and her siblings Donna Shireman, Sandy Herron (Don), Sue Wimsatt (Mike), 13 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren.

Visitation will be 2:00pm to 7:00pm Sunday, August 18, at Kraft Funeral Service, 708 E. Spring Street, New Albany, Indiana. Additional visitation is available from 8:00am to 10:00am the following morning, August 19, at Grace Lutheran Church, 1787 Klerner Lane, New Albany, Indiana. Her funeral service will

immediately follow at 10:00am, with a burial to follow at St. John’s Lutheran Church Cemetery in Lanesville, Indiana.

In lieu of flowers, it is asked that memorial contributions be made to either Grace Lutheran Preschool or the Grace Lutheran Church Food Pantry.