Carol Alene Mays

On Wed, Oct 6, 2021 at 8:50 PM Lori Dohe < ldohe@wwps.org > wrote:

Carol Alene Mays was born to Anna and Forman Frisbie in 1928 in Wenatchee, Washington.

Carol’s musical talents were recognized at a very young age; at twelve, a general stationed at Moses Lake escorted her from her home to Moses Lake to sing to the troops.  As a teen, her family moved to the Los Angeles area where she met her husband, Louis Austin Mays, who played trumpet in a jazz band with whom she sang.  At nineteen, she eloped with Louis to Yuma, Arizona.  Her first daughter, Valorie Mays Emilio, was born in 1948 and soon exhibited the same musical talents as her mother and father.

Lori Mays Dohe was born in 1958 and enjoyed music but loved languages and literature like her father.  Jeffrey Louis Mays, a talented musician and athlete, was born in 1960.

Carol worked briefly as an elementary school teacher in Long Beach, California, and stopped teaching to raise her two younger children.  When Lori and Jeffrey were teens, she worked nearby at California State University Long Beach in the Admissions and Records office.  Carol and Louis loved to take their children on camping trips with their close friends, the Winter family.  The two families bought property on Guemes Island across from Anacortes, Washington, and built homes.  Carol and Louis retired to Guemes Island where she enjoyed island life with walks on the beach, visiting with her old friends, and making new friends.  She found local musicians and continued to sing.

After the deaths of her husband and son, Carol moved to Walla Walla to be closer to her daughter Lori’s family.  She moved to Walla Walla and lived in a retirement community that offered multiple levels of care.  She loved animals and donated regularly to the Blue Mountain Humane Society and adopted her beloved Benji, whom she walked daily, meeting neighbors along the way.

Even in the last level of care, she loved singing with the staff at the Oddfellows facility and even entertained the residents in the community’s activity room with local musicians.  She passed away at age 93 with her daughter and family friends close by her side. She is survived by her two daughters, grandson Erik Dohe, and her dog, Benji.

Memorial Contributions may be made to the Blue Mountain Humane Society through the Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder St., Walla Walla, WA 99362. Special thanks go to the caring staff at Oddfellows.