“Whatever you make of it.”
Carolyn Adams summarizes a lot of her life in those words.
She was born—one of four children to her parents–in the Blackwell, Oklahoma area and raised in Lamont on a wheat farm, eventually moving to Ark City and attended Pittsburg State graduating in 1966 with a degree in Education (teaching).
For twelve years Carolyn taught third grade in Wichita and also met an Air Force officer, Bill Adams, on a blind date. They married in 1968.
After fulfilling his military service Bill and Carolyn moved to Fort Madison, Iowa and Bill took advantage of the VA education benefit to complete a degree at Western Illinois University (Macomb, Illinois) while residing in nearby Blandensville, Illinois, a thirty-mile round-trip commute for Carolyn as she continued teaching in Fort Madison, Iowa.
When Bill graduated in 1976 he took a job with the Army Corps of Engineers in Tulsa, Oklahoma and they resided in nearby Sand Springs, Oklahoma for three years where Carolyn also taught third grade.
Bill’s parents purchased some resorts on the Lake of the Ozarks and Carolyn and Bill moved to Osage Beach, Missouri to operate one of the properties for three years.
Carolyn taught in the small community of Camdenton, Missouri and has cherished memories of the twenty-five compassionate sixth graders she led and, who in turn, taught her about how life is “whatever you make it.”
In the 1980s Bill returned to the Army Corps of Engineers out of Sulphur Springs, Texas. Their next move was to Albuquerque, New Mexico and Carolyn was employed at the Albuquerque Federal Savings and Loan and as secretary to the president.
Following the divorce from Bill, Carolyn became a twenty-three-year employee of Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Albuquerque (eleven years) and in Denver, Colorado (twelve years).
Having family in Kansas and being familiar with Newton, Carolyn retired, relocated here and resided at “The Manor” where she still maintains strong connections with friends even after settling on the campus at Kansas Christian Home.
Her life now is made up of a faith nurtured by the First Presbyterian Church community and all her extended family and friends.