Carolyn Mae Aldrich, 76, formerly of Alton, Ill., passed away Feb. 5, 2019, at Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Mo.
She was born May 19, 1942, daughter of the late Paul Dale and Elizabeth (Mickal) Hart in Alton. She was the youngest of four and attended Ss. Peter & Paul grade school, Marquette and Alton high schools.
She married her childhood sweetheart James V. Aldrich on May 19, 1959. They had daughters Cynthia E. and Jamie V. He preceded her in death April 14, 1962. She later remarried Leroy E. Aldrich May 22, 1969. They had a son, Darrell L. Aldrich. He preceded her in death June 7, 2004.
Carolyn worked for Alton Mental Health and later became owner of Guys & Dolls styling and tanning salon in E. Alton. She retired to the Ozarks in 1985. She loved animals, gardening, collecting antiques and spending time with her family and friends.
Carolyn made many new friends after her move to the “beautiful Ozarks mountains” as she would call it. She had now made a change from being a business owner in the city to a country farm and land owner. She and her husband, Leroy “Lucky” moved to Bucyrus, Mo., in February 1985. There was two feet of snow on the ground. She met her new Missouri friends, Danny and Linda Campbell and James and Barbara Campbell, as neighbors on both sides of the farm came to help.
Throughout the rest of her life, she did several things to keep her busy and make money off the land. She had a good size garden for 35 years. She picked blackberries in the hottest times of the summer. Beginning at daylight, she and her friend Linda Campbell picked up walnuts, acorns, hickory nuts and dogwood berries to sell to the nurseries until she decided to start her own seed buying station. She and Linda both cleaned homes and businesses around the community. She cleaned Dr. Taylor’s veterinarian office for many years as well as the original Progressive Ozark Bank in Houston in the early 1990s.
She made many friends throughout the community while going to farmers markets, auctions, fishing and hiking through the woods hunting mushrooms with Lucky. However, her favorite thing to do was going to yard sales. She could spend an entire Saturday at them with grandchildren and friends. She loved Christmas and would start shopping literally the first week of January and not stop until the last minute in December.
She helped her son start the family owned business, Pit Stop’s Ozark Treasurers, in January 2016 and helped out at the store and special events.
She was an amazing woman who would help anybody and everybody she could. She will be greatly missed by many and remembered by everyone that had the pleasure of being her friend.
She is survived by a brother, Harold E. (Myrna) Hart of Godfrey, Ill.; daughters, Cynthia (Tito) Torres of Licking, Mo., and Jamie (James) Blackorby of E. Alton, Ill.; son, Darrell Aldrich of Bucyrus, Mo.; grandchildren, Dustin Shinn of Kentucky, Joshua Shinn of Licking, Mo., Carie (Tim) Lamke of Alton, Ill., Kelsy Blackorby of E. Alton, Ill., and Sabrina Aldrich of Bucyrus, Mo.; step-grandsons, Denzel and Devon of Kentucky; seven great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
A memorial will be held from 1-3 p.m. Sunday, April 7, at the Houston Senior Center. Cremation was handled by St. Louis Cremation.
The family asks that memorials be made to American Cancer Society or American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (aarda.org). Condolences can be left at stlouiscremation.com.
PAID
