Carol Esther (Stoelting) Nicholson was born August 30, 1931, on her grandparents’ farm near Bristol, South Dakota, the third child of Edwin August and Rose Marie (Anderson) Stoelting.
When Carol was four, the family moved to Schaller, Iowa, and a year later to Sac City, Iowa, where she attended school and graduated in 1949. She then went to business school in Omaha, Nebraska. To earn part of her tuition, she was a nanny for a family in Omaha. After graduating, her first job was at Merchants Biscuit Company, which later became Keebler. It was there that she met her husband, Robert “Bob” Nicholson. They were married on March 28, 1954, in Sac City. Daughters Tara Sue and Lori Ann were born in Omaha. The family then moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and from there to Woodward, Oklahoma, where son Bris Robert was born. He lived only three days. In May 1957, they moved to Ashland, Kansas, where daughters Jeri Lyn and Kira Lee and son Reid Alden were born. Reid lived one month and three days.
Carol and Bob owned and operated the Ashland Nursing Home for many years. Later, Carol worked at Stockgrowers State Bank for 28 years, also working weekend nights at the nursing home. In retirement from the bank, she continued working weekends at the nursing home for a few years, housecleaning for local residents, and keeping busy with children and grandchildren. In 2016, she moved to Hutchinson, Kansas.
Carol had many talents, including cooking, sewing, crocheting, and knitting. She was a very good mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, daughter, sister, and friend to many.
Carol’s Christ-centered faith was very important to her. Her love of Jesus, her Lord and Savior, was exemplified by her devotion to family and friends and her service to others. Every Sunday, she and her daughters traveled 32 miles one-way to the Lutheran church in Buffalo, Oklahoma, because there was no Lutheran church in Ashland. She also made the same trip to see that her daughters completed confirmation classes.
Carol was preceded in death by her parents, grandparents, sons, Bris and Reid, brother and sister-in-law, Kenneth and Jean Stoelting, sister, Betsy Stoelting, brother-in-law, Lyle Skinner, and the father of her children, Robert Nicholson.
Survivors include daughters: Tara Nicholson of Hutchinson, Kansas, Lori (Terry) Brunholtz of Owasso, Oklahoma, Jeri (Jonathan) Melin of Derby, Kansas, Kira (Brent) Gugler of rural Chapman, Kansas; sister, Marlene (John) Hemmer of Mission, Texas, sister, Phyllis Skinner of Lake City, Iowa. Her grandchildren are Ariel Paul Melin, Maria (Daniel) Shields, Gareth Melin, and Jaron (Elizabeth) Melin, all of Derby, Kansas, Andrew Warner of Abilene, Kansas, Ashley (David) Beier of Wichita, Kansas, Kaylen Gugler of Woodbine, Kansas, and Kristine Gugler of Hays, Kansas. Her great-grandchildren are Lily and Liam Shields of Derby, Kansas, Evan Beier of Wichita, Kansas, and the expected child of Jaron and Elizabeth Melin.
Memorial service will be 1:00 p.m. Saturday, February 1, 2020, at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 407 E. 12th Avenue, Hutchinson. Memorials may be made to Concordia Seminary, in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, KS 67501.