Carol Mary Johns' Obituary
In Loving Memory of Carol Mary (Warren) JohnsJanuary 15, 1936 to October 5, 2012It is difficult to create a summary in words of the intricacies that is an entire lifetime. Yet, we are compelled to try. We want to share all the beauty, love and grace of our amazing beloved mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and friend. Our mother was loved dearly, and is profoundly missed. Carol Mary Warren Johns, born in San Francisco, CA. to William and Dorothy Warren, she was the middle of three sisters. The oldest is the late Diane Hickman, and the youngest is Susan Stebbins of Cincinnati, Ohio. She was preceded in death by her older half-brother Rev. Lindsay Warren. As a child, she lived in Columbia Falls, Montana, and Portland, Oregon. She attended Portsmouth grade school and Roosevelt High School. As a young girl, she was nicknamed "Carol Mary Wildcat." Most people who knew her as an adult would not be able to imagine her as wildcat.In 1951, Carol married Richard Kluser and moved to various cities across the country in their life as a Marine Corps family. Together they had five children: Lorna Danine, Joan Elaine, Deborah Anne, Carol Lynn, and Richard William, Jr. When her marriage to Richard ended, she moved to Oregon with her children She married Robert (Bob) Johns in 1970, and they welcomed a son, Ronald Warren Johns. They lived for many years in southeast Portland. Carol was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church. She sang in the choir, was also a member of a trio, and taught Sunday school. While Bob helped coach little league teams for Richard and Ron, Carol helped the team working in the snack wagon and cheering them on. She volunteered at Woodstock grade school, which led to a paid position as a teaching assistant. She worked for Portland Public Schools for over twenty years as an assistant for a special education teacher, at Woodstock and Bridlemile grade schools. She believed in the importance of education no matter the challenges. Carol also served as Den mother to her sons' Cub scout troops.Carol took great pride in all of her children. She understood their uniqueness and respected their differences. One of her greatest sources of pride and joy were the arrival of her grandchildren: Joshua, Joseph, Damian, Benjamin, Andrea, Zachary, Sarah, Andrew, Matthew, David, Katie, Madeline, Jordan, Aaron, Caden, Sylvie, and Liam. She loved sharing their milestones, birthdays, graduations, recitals, plays, and weddings. She welcomed and loved her great-grandchildren: Talon, Bryar, Tyler, Jonathan, Nathaniel, Lydia, Karli, Lexie, Olivia, Ethan, Ruben, Manny, Isabella, and Kemper. Most recently she welcomed her first great great-granddaughter Maya.In 1989, Bob and Carol moved to Oregon City having acquired some acreage where they planned to live in their retirement years. They joined the Carus United Methodist church in Oregon City where they both became very involved with the community. From 1991 to 2008, Carol served the Annual Conference as a certified lay speaker. From 1993 to 2004, she served as Carus UMC lay leader. In 2002-2004, she served as Western District lay leader. In 2004, she was Dean of the UMW School of Christian Missions. She served as Carus UMC United Methodist Women President and Western District United Methodist Women President. During this time, she took piano and organ lessons. She loved to sing and was always involved in the music ministry. She also taught Sunday school. She had great fun helping to organize the Carus annual mother/daughter tea and took great pride in introducing her daughters, granddaughters, and friend daughters at those events.She loved it when the family gathered at her home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Friends were always welcome and treated like family. Welcoming was often used to describe our beautiful mother, she always said, "the more the merrier." She enjoyed group games like Charades, Encore, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, and Scattergories. She also loved scrabble, jigsaw puzzles and crosswords. She was an avid, thoughtful reader. Some of her favorites books include Lorna Doone, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the Harry Potter Series, Agatha Christie and Issac Asimov, to name but a few. She enjoyed knitting and made afghans for all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, allowing each of them to choose their favorite colors. Carol absolutely adored her sisters and brother and their spouses. Together they all had a great sense of fun. She cherished their children, her many nieces and nephews. She treasured her cousins and friends. She had 38 very happy years with her dear husband, who preceded her in death in 2008.Carol was brilliant, kind, loving, caring, welcoming, patient, gracious, and beautiful. She blessed this earth with her love, curiosity and humor. She had a lovely smile.We love her dearly and she loved us so well. We can almost hear her solemnly recite, with a gleam of mischief in her eye:"I eat my peas with honeyI've done it all my lifeIt makes the peas taste funnybut it keeps them on my knife."Thank you for your unconditional love, always.You are missed. A memorial service in honor of her life will be held at Carus United Methodist Church, 22765 S Hwy. 213, Oregon City, on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 at 1 p.m.If you prefer, in lieu of flowers, please make a donation to United Methodist Women or the Charity of your choice.
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