Carolyn Joy DeHate -- Rochester

Aug. 2, 1944 — March 15, 2019

Carolyn Joy DeHate was born in Wahpeton, N.D. Carolyn spent her childhood between her grandmother’s farm in North Dakota and her parents’ home in California. She attended country school at Colfax #5 with her first cousins, and moved to Fargo to attend Oak Grove Lutheran School. She later transferred to San Luis Obispo, Calif., where she graduated.

Carolyn was always a creative person. Her early working career included advertising design and sales. She was a costume maker and designer as well as a civic event organizer. Wherever she was, she joined the PTA, Chamber of Commerce and volunteered with the Cub and Boy Scouts. Her sons always had the attention-getting costumes. Carolyn managed gas stations/convenience stores for a small gas company in the San Joaquin Valley, until she left work to care for her mother.

When she moved to Rochester, she volunteered with LSS in a program for Olmsted Medical Center and volunteered in fund raising activities for the History Center of Olmsted County and the Cronin Home. She filled her time working at a pet store and wearing a costume every chance she got!

Her former husband was in the military, so she and their sons had many homes — from Alaska to Mississippi; from northern California to Arizona. These moves fed an incredible curiosity about the world. Her growing up vocabulary always included, "Why? Or why not?" She enjoyed a joke, a pun, and a story. She liked to read, to sew, to make quilts and do machine embroidery. She loved her sons, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and her extended family. We miss her!

Carolyn was preceded in death by her infant son, Mark; her parents and stepfather and her grandparents.

Carolyn is survived by her four sons and their families, Daniel (Stacey Butler), Jeffrey (Andrea), Bruce, and Robert (Gloria Robinson); two brothers, Tom (Wanda) Evans and Steven (Dianna) Pacheco.

There are nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, five nieces and one nephew, and many cousins.

A Celebration of Life is being planned for late June to share the stories and love that made Carolyn who she was.