Carol Lee Holderby Welsh

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 21, at First Presbyterian Church of Edmond, 1001 S. Rankin in Edmond.

She was born March 22, 1931, in East St. Louis, Illinois, to parents Oscar and Dorothy Holderby and as little sister to Bob. Carol, who attended Oklahoma City’s Classen High School, is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. At OU, she met Albert “Al,” who would become her husband of over 50 years, on a blind date. Their marriage lasted until Al’s death in 2006.

From Palo Alto, California, and San Antonio, Texas, to Birmingham, Michigan, and Oklahoma City, they raised three children.

Discovering in her 40s a passion for history, Carol earned a master’s in Southwestern U.S. history from University of Central Oklahoma and later served as an adjunct professor at OSU-OKC and Oklahoma City University.

A researcher, public speaker and author of articles and book reviews in The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Today and the Journal of Presbyterian History, she seemed most proud of her master’s thesis project. This published book, “An Annotated Guide to the Chronicles of Oklahoma,” organized and summarized some 1,800 articles for historians, librarians, teachers, students and genealogists.

Well into marriage, the historian in her discovered that Al’s grandfather (Lyman Welsh), an Oklahoma City banker, had a hand in her Holderby family’s relocation from St. Louis to Oklahoma City. This involved the Oklahoma National Stockyards Company, for which her dad served as president for many years.

Among Carol’s various volunteer activities, she tutored children at the Presbyterian Urban Mission, taught Sunday School and led tours of the Oklahoma History Center.

She was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Edmond and Tri Delta, for which she was honored as the 2011 Theta Gamma Lifetime Loyalty Award recipient.

She is survived by son David Welsh and wife Caryl of San Antonio; daughter Elizabeth “Betsy” Fernandez and husband Michael of Dallas; and daughter Nancy Matthews and husband Paul of Edmond.

Carol, a.k.a. Gram or GiGi, had seven grandchildren: Bryan Welsh (wife Johanna); Alyson Reaves (husband Dan); John Michael “JM” and Erin Fernandez; Jackson Matthews (wife Kortlyn); Cole and Rachel Matthews; and eight great-grandchildren (Emma and Landon Welsh; Mayson and Jordan Reaves; and Jace, Falah, Rynnox and Decker Matthews) with one more Welsh on the way.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Presbyterian Urban Mission, urbanmissionokc.org, or Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma,

lyrictheatreokc.org.