(JESSIE) CAROLYN FONTE

Oct. 25, 1917 - Aug. 8, 2009

Born to June (Armentrout) and Mark J. Dice in Culver Hospital, Crawfordsville, Ind. in 1917, Carolyn was one of five children (Robert, Margaret, Fleming and David). She graduated from Crawfordsville High School in 1935, and followed her parents to Elgin, Ill. where they had relocated a year earlier.

She worked in the retail business from 1936-1944 when she married Ralph P. Fonte of Dundee, Ill. Carolyn and Ralph met at a local YMCA dance and married in Cheyenne, Wyo.

She and Ralph raised their two daughters, Anita Fonte and Donna Price, in Elgin where Carolyn was active in the First Methodist Church’s Mistletoe Mart (her divinity was always sold out before the public could buy it). She became Manager of the Ben Franklin’s on McLean Blvd. and, after retiring from that job, later was a sales clerk at Kolberg’s Jewelry.

After Ralph retired from U-46, they moved to Green Valley to be near her sister, and two daughters in Tucson and their husbands Mark Grushka and Ross Price.

In Arizona, she became an avid fan of the University of Arizona’s basketball team. Carolyn and Ralph moved to The Cascades of Tucson in the fall of 2009 and Carolyn later moved to Dae’s Golden Days where she died of natural causes, under the care of Carondelet Hospice.

Carolyn enjoyed traveling to new places such as Pike’s Peak, the Grand Canyon and Venice Beach, Calif. She loved to bake cookies and her Southern fried chicken and homemade spaghetti and meatballs were favorites at family gatherings. As a child, she loved to perform parlor stories and often dramatically read aloud to her children and three grandchildren: Aron Fonte-Grushka and Whitney and Lynley Price.

Carolyn was buried at Green Valley Mortuary. No funeral services were held but cards can be sent to Ralph Fonte, 201 N. Jessica Avenue, Apt. 204, Tucson, AZ 85710.

As a tribute to Carolyn, donations can be made in her name to Reading Seed/1920 E. Silverlake Rd., Suite 207, Tucson, AZ 85713 or Carondelet Hospice/630 N. Alvernon Way, Tucson, AZ 85711.