Marian Catherine (Niemann) Carlisle
Marian Catherine (Niemann) Carlisle of Sun Lakes, Arizona, passed away at her home on October 19, 2017, surrounded by her children and husband of 62 years.
Marian was born September 4, 1932, in Portage, Wisconsin, to Rodney and Catherine (Welsh) Niemann. She attended Portage High School and graduated with the class of 1950. In 1955, Marian married Dallas Carlisle and together they raised five wonderful children.
Marian was employed as a receptionist in a medical clinic early on in their marriage, but the challenge of raising four sons and one daughter required Marian to become a full-time homemaker. Marian was an amazing mother who was always there for her children and attended nearly every one of their extra-curricular activities.
Dallas and Marian retired in 1989. After living most of their married life in Iowa and Nebraska, they were ready to get out of the cold and moved first to Ahwatukee, AZ, and then to Sun Lakes, AZ. Marian was an avid golfer and over the years, recorded four holes-in-one. She enjoyed watching sports, especially football and golf, and was a passionate Seattle Seahawks fan. Marian was a skilled Bridge player, playing in at least two leagues a week in Sun Lakes, AZ, as well as sitting in as an alternate for other groups. She also loved playing Bingo at the casino with her friends, and would play every Monday night.
More than anything, Marian loved talking about and showing off her children when they were in town with anyone who would give her an ear. She spoke often and at length about their accomplishments, their families and how much she loved them and how proud she was of all of them.
Marian is survived by her husband Dallas Carlisle, their sons Tim (Sheryl) Carlisle of Ankeny, Iowa; Steve (Tammy) Carlisle of Gilbert, Arizona; Chris (Louon) Carlisle of Seattle, Washington; Tom (Teena) Carlisle of Mesa, Arizona and daughter Patty (Bob) Panzer of Lincoln, Nebraska, as well as 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her parents Rodney and Catherine Niemann, her brother Melvin Niemann and grandson Bradley Carlisle. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Marian’s name to the Ronald McDonald House Charities, www.rmhcphoenix.com.
Beverly Elayne Lloyd
Beverly Elayne Lloyd passed away January 12, 2018, in Sun Lakes, Arizona. She was the only child born to Lylas Elayne and Johnny Lloyd. Beverly is survived by her spouse of 47 years, Mary Lou Claypool, son Wayne Harris, daughter-in-law Rachel, grandsons Malik and Xavier and granddaughter Tanaya. Bev was born and raised in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she has many extended family members.
Beverly loved history, reading and sports of all kinds. While still in Klamath Falls, she played for the women’s fast-pitch softball team before moving to Portland. Bev resumed her love for the game by being a player for the Erv Lind Florists and a manager of Dave Lee Sports fast pitch teams. She was also an avid Trailblazer fan.
Upon graduating from the University of Oregon with a degree in physical education and health, Ms. Lloyd began her teaching career at Estacada High School. After two years, she transferred to the North Clackamas school district and taught one year at Clackamas High School. In 1963, she became one of the original teachers to open Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie and remained there for 30 years. She became not only a fixture of the school, but was known as “an institution” herself. Her first assignment was as a physical education and health teacher but after receiving her master’s degree from Oregon State, she moved into counseling.
During her counseling years, Bev received the Pacific Northwest Association of College Admission Counselors Award honoring counselors from four states: Alaska, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. She served as coordinator of college information and post high school planning and wrote a handbook to assist students with planning beyond high school. This manual serves as a model for counseling departments across the country. She and other parents set up a college center at Putnam for students and parents to receive additional information in college selection.
Bev was totally committed to two schools – Rex Putnam and the University of Oregon. The colors for both schools are green and gold, and the “loyal fan” even converted her golf cart to a “Duck-mobile” to drive around the golf course.
Bev was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, Western Region of College Boards, PSU Club of Champions, Oregon High School Coaches Association, Pacific Northwest Association of College Admission Counselors and several other organizations serving students.
She was known as a caring, kind, reliable and loyal friend who always had a smile on her face and love in her heart. She will be deeply missed by anyone whose life she touched.
Bev’s legacy lies in the establishment of the Beverly Lloyd Scholarship. Over 40 students have received scholarships from this fund. The family requests that anyone wishing to contribute to Bev’s memory do so by sending your contribution to The Oregon Community Foundation Beverly Lloyd Scholarship, 1221 SW Yamhill St., Suite 100, Portland, Oregon, or the University of Oregon Foundation, 1720 E. 13th Avenue, Suite 410, Eugene, OR 97403.
The first Celebration of Life service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on March 25 at Sun Lakes, AZ, Pro Shop (Mulligan’s). An Oregon Celebration of Life service will be held at Eastmoreland Golf Course Clubhouse on June 9 at 11:00 a.m.
Mary Joy Peterson
Mary Joy Peterson passed away peacefully on January 29 in her apartment at the Renaissance in Sun Lakes, AZ. She was born in Joliet, Illinois, to Vivian and Reuben Nelson but raised her family in Japan and Germany while working for the Department of Defense Schools. She is preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Donald Peterson. Her children Jill Brown and Jackie Pope and their husbands survive her. She also leaves behind five grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
Joy had a long and distinguished career as a kindergarten teacher, along with being a competent bridge player and pianist. She was known as an outstanding educator and a wonderful human being who had a genuine concern and sensitivity for students, parents and staff. She and her husband Donald moved to Arizona when they retired. After the loss of her husband, she moved to Sun Lakes.
Joy was a great lady who handled all her losses as she declined without complaint, maintained her sense of humor and gratitude. For all of us who loved her, we can be comforted by the fact that she lived fully, declined gracefully and died peacefully.
A celebration of her life was held in February.
Vernon Nelson
Vernon Nelson died on January 27, 2018. He was 103 years old. He was in amazingly good health right up to the end, maintaining a fairly positive attitude and good humor about his declining abilities.
Born in Kamiah, Idaho, on September 14, 1914, Vern’s family moved to San Francisco, California, when he was three years old. He lived and attended school in the Mission Delores district and was in the first graduating class of Balboa High School in 1931.
Vern had an affinity for numbers and became an accountant at Simmons Mattress Company. Here he met his future wife Sylvia. They married in December, 1947, and raised their children in Berkeley, Orinda and San Francisco.
In the 1960s, Vern was employed by Colonial Savings & Loan, where he worked his way up to become President and CEO. In the 1970s, billionaire Daniel K. Ludwig started buying savings and loans in California, and when he bought Home Savings & Loan and Colonial (merging the two), Vern left the company and worked as an accountant for LB Nelson, Inc. Ludwig then offered Vern the position of President and CEO of Southwest Savings & Loan, which he had purchased in the mid-1970s. Vern accepted the offer, and he and Sylvia moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they lived until Vern retired. They took a few cruises and traveled abroad, and then, in 1986, they built a home on the eighth green of the Palo Verde golf course in Sun Lakes. For the next 30 years, they enjoyed being active members of the community – Vern primarily in the Sun Lakes Aero Club and Sylvia in the Sun Lakes Watercolor Club.
Vern learned to fly late in life – he took his first lesson when he was in his late 50s – and once licensed, he flew as often as he could. His first plane was a seaplane which he kept in Sausalito, California. Years later, he purchased a Beechcraft Bonanza which he made available to members of the Sun Lakes Aero Club. Vern was the last surviving co-founder of the SLAC. As the other founders did, over the years, he assumed virtually every role available to its members. His favorite and perhaps most challenging role was as webmaster of the SLAC website, which he designed and built himself.
Always ready for adventure, especially if it involved flying, Vern jumped off of Tiger Mountain in Issaquah, Washington, in a tandem paraglider when he was 82 years old. He had been active in bowling leagues since he was in his early 20s, but it wasn’t until he was 90 years old that he bowled a 300 game.
Vern was preceded in death by his wife and all of his sons. He is survived by his daughter Grace Lambert who, with the help of her husband Steve, lovingly cared for him the last year of his life; four grandchildren; six great-grandchildren and three nieces.
Contributions in his name may be made to Valley Hospice of Arizona or to Rejuvenate Hospice in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Employees of both agencies provided compassionate care to Vern in the last year of his life.
Billy Joe Tolbert (“Bill”)
On January 17, 2018, after faithfully serving his Lord, family and friends, retired pastor Billy Joe Tolbert (Bill) left this life to join his savior and his wife Betty, as well as his middle son Gary.
Immediately after high school graduation in 1944, Bill proudly enlisted in the Army Air Corps 11th Division and served through the duration of the war until 1946. He served in the Aleutian Islands as a radio operator on a B-17 aircraft. In 1948, Bill married Betty Faye Lawler and had three sons, Scott, Gary and Jeff. He graduated from Hardin Simmons Christian College in 1951 and was later ordained at Southwestern Theological Seminary.
He pastored churches in Texas, California and Arizona, but he founded El Toro Baptist Church in 1965 and remained until he retired in 1989. After retiring, he moved to Arizona to watch his grandchildren Jessica and Kyle grow up – and to play softball and lots of golf with Betty. He was also the interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Sun Lakes and Baptist Church of Chandler.
Bill will be remembered as a kind, generous, honest, faithful and wise man, as well as a loving husband, father and friend.
Bill Tolbert is survived by his sister Martha MacCallum, sister-in-law Irma Boggus Bell, sons Scott and Jeff, daughters-in-law Cary and Cathy and grandchildren Jessica and Kyle. Family, friends and parishioners will remember him.
A memorial service was held on February 10 in Sun Lakes.
Yvonne W. Rose
Yvonne W. Rose, a Sun Lakes resident, mother passed on January 16 at 94. She joins husband Arnold at the National Military Cemetery in Phoenix. Half a year she lived in Boulder Creek, CA, making her a “Rainbird.”
Known as “Vonnie” or “Momo,” she enjoyed a life well lived with a love of ladies’ golf, swing dancing, costume parties and Days of Our Lives. Cheers social group gave her many local friends.
Yvonne began as a beautician, but left to work on Dock 2 at Richmond Shipyards in World War II. She retired from Chevron. She leaves daughter Carolyn. Her son Mark preceded her, as did granddaughter Krystal.
Momo enjoyed love from grandsons Tony, Gaylord and Chad. Her 94 years allowed her to see great-grandchildren Kody, Jaime, Rachel, Liliana, Vivian, Lauren, Emma and Julia. All will forever miss her kindness, humor and glorious smile. Neighbors Who Care and Hospice of the East Valley are sent our thanks.
Leorial (Lee) Joyce Schwartz
Leorial (Lee) Joyce Schwartz, age 91, formerly of Williston and a resident of Sun Lakes, Arizona, walked gracefully into the welcoming arms of her Lord and Savior on January 17, 2018, after a short struggle due to complications from a fall. Born on November 21, 1926, to Vernon Marion and Hattie Armilda Brewer in Council, Idaho, she was the second of three daughters born to the marriage. Her father Vernon was a U.S. Forest Ranger in Western Wyoming and Utah. Following her dad’s forest assignments, the family moved to a few towns in Utah before they settled in the town of Jackson, Wyoming. She attended Jackson-Wilson High School where she studied and in her spare time, participated in cheerleading, women’s basketball and became a skilled downhill skier. She graduated from Jackson-Wilson High School in 1944 and went on to study at the University of Wyoming and Utah State Agricultural University. During her final year of studies and while working in Jackson, she met the love of her life Thomas Anson Schwartz who was a consulting oil and gas well mud logger. They were united in marriage on January 8, 1949, in Logan, Utah.
Lee then finished her studies and graduated from Utah State Agricultural University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce on June 3, 1949. After a short period in Denver, Colorado, and the birth of their first two children, Tom and Lee with the onset of the oil boom in the Williston Basin, moved their young family to Williston, North Dakota, where they worked and settled in the community, expanded and raised their family of four children (Darcy, Danny, Rebecca and Dirk) for the next 37 years.
After raising her children and with the revival of the oil and gas business in the mid-1970s, Lee with Tom at her side learned and became an excellent court house title examiner who was revered by many in the business. The oil and gas business had its ups and downs, but through those years, her love for her family, friends, community and the oil and gas business never wavered. During the long and cold winters in Williston, Lee started playing bridge and became quite proficient which led her to becoming a Master Bridge Player. With the onset of spring each year, Lee always looked forward with great enthusiasm of getting outside to pursue her passion of planting her vegetable and flower gardens, having patio and barbeque parties as well as golfing. Lee was an accomplished golfer who loved the sport. While in Williston, Lee was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Williston, First Union Church and First Lutheran Church of Williston. In 1989, Lee and Tom moved to Sun Lakes, Arizona, to spend their retirement years golfing and enjoying friends and family. After the passing of Tom in 1996, Lee continued to play golf, play bridge, enjoy family and occasionally travel the U.S. and overseas with her girlfriends and sisters. She was a member of the Mountain View Lutheran Church, Phoenix, Arizona.
Preceding her in death were her parents Vernon M. and Hattie A. Brewer, husband Thomas A. Schwartz, sisters and brothers-in-law Nita and Ray Maleckar and Wanda and Robert Hobbs, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law Harold and Francis Schwartz and Stuart and Wilma Johnston. Surviving are her four children: Darcy (Neva) Schwartz of Tempe, AZ; Danny (Gina) Schwartz of Fort Collins, CO; Rebecca (Matthew) Farrell of Westminster, CO; and Dirk (Lisa) Schwartz of Broomfield, CO; five grandchildren: Derek Schwartz of Tempe, AZ; Whitney (Andrew) Brown of Phoenix, AZ; Natalie (Bryan) Taute of Phoenix, AZ; Christopher (Dana) Schwartz of Fort Collins, CO; and Leah Schwartz of Broomfield, CO. Three great-grandchildren: Braxton Brown, Olivia Schwartz and Adrian Schwartz, and step-daughter Susan Pratt of Solvang, CA. Lee loved her family, and each one was special to her in their own and unique way.
The family extends its many thanks and is forever grateful to Nicol (Nic) Surgenor, Lee’s caregiver, who for the past two years cared for, supported and treated Lee with great respect and dignity. The family also thanks the Renaissance Memory Care Center of Sun Lakes and the Nurses of Hospice of the Valley for their compassionate care of Lee.
A private family internment service was held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, January 26, 2018, at Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary & Cemetery in Centennial, Colorado.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, please donate in Leorial’s name to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5014.
Shirley Ann Castagner
Shirley Ann Castagner, 87, of Sun Lakes, Arizona, passed away suddenly and peacefully at the Chandler Regional Medical Center, Chandler, Arizona, on February 3, 2018, and is now with the Lord in Glory.
Shirley was born January 18, 1931, in Tunbridge, Vermont, the daughter of Seldon and Emily Tomlinson. Shirley attended Tunbridge Elementary School and graduated from the South Royalton High School in 1948. On December 26, 1949, Shirley married Robert Shepard. They made their home in South Royalton, Vermont, raising an active family of Carol, Wendy, Jeff and Tina Marie (who passed in infancy). Later, Shirley married Earl Mongeon, living in South Royalton until they moved to Mesa, Arizona, in 1981 and eventually to Sun Lakes, Arizona. Mr. Mongeon died November 3, 1997.
Shirley then met Maurice Castagner, a high school classmate, at their 50th class reunion. They were married on September 20, 1998. They divided their residencies between Randolph Center, Vermont (summers) and Sun Lakes, Arizona (winters).
Shirley, full of energy, worked at various employment until settling down at G.W. Plastics in Bethel, Vermont, and also had enjoyable employment at Intel in Chandler, Arizona. Shirley retired from Intel in 1983. Shirley enjoyed a long retirement, traveling to each Hawaiian island; the western states; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; and, of course, the sunshine of Arizona.
Shirley was an avid golfer, playing at many golf courses around Arizona with husband Earl. Being on bowling teams was second nature to Shirley. Music and dancing were favorites. Shirley was a member of the Sun Lakes Community Church and enjoyed Bible study and fellowship.
Shirley was very proud of all her family members. She is survived by her husband Maurice; sisters Lilla Mae and Miriam; brother Harley; children Wendy Movill and Jeff Shepard; son-in-law Craig Movill; ex-husband Robert Shepard; many grandchildren; great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Sun Lakes Community Church, 9240 E. Sun Lakes Blvd. N, Sun Lakes, AZ 85248, or Randolph Center Congregational Church, P.O. Box 14, Randolph Center, Vermont 05061.