College Station — Carolyn Taylor Crockett, 76, died Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at her home in College Station, following a long lung illness. 

A native of El Paso, the only child of an oilman and a world history teacher came of age in West Texas during the Civil Rights era.  She attended Baylor University and married her college sweetheart, Jerry.  After graduating, the couple headed to Kentucky, where she earned her Master’s degree in Social Work and he his Master’s of Divinity.  After having two children and making lifelong friends, Carolyn returned with her family to Texas.  She wanted to be close to her extended family and for her children to have the best public education possible. 

Carolyn was a working mom.  She was passionate about the mental health field in which she served and in caring for those who had been misunderstood and forgotten.  She lived out her Christian belief that every person was a child of God.  Her specialty as a social worker was in mental retardation.  She was a staunch advocate of normalization, the theory that mentally disabled people could lead vibrant, productive lives if treated with dignity and assimilated into mainstream society.  

Carolyn took pride in the accomplishments of her children and delighted in the antics of her grandsons.  As a retiree, she tended to her widower dad and was steadfast in caring for him, regularly driving long distances across Texas with her canine sidekick, Spot, to ensure her elderly father could have the dignity of staying in his West Texas home for as long as possible.

Carolyn cherished her friends.  One of her big projects in later years was genealogy: she and Jerry would travel to the Mid-West and up and down the East Coast to do painstaking genealogical research.  In early 2017, her efforts culminated in her and Michelle’s induction into the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Throughout her life, both as a preacher’s wife and as a church member, Carolyn’s faith in God and in Christ was quiet yet abiding – a faith she shared with her husband Jerry.  She was a lifelong Methodist and her church of record was Laurel Heights United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas.  

Carolyn leaves behind her husband of 52 years, Jerry Crockett, daughter Michelle Crockett, son John Crockett, daughter-in-law Shannon Crockett, grandsons Sam and Ben Crockett, cousin Betsy Spiller, and other beloved family members and friends.

Carolyn Taylor Crockett is now in God’s loving care.  May she rest in peace. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Laurel Heights United Methodist Church, Hospice Brazos Valley, and the American Lung Association.  Visitation with the family will be held on Saturday, October 13, from 10 am – noon at Callaway-Jones Funeral Center in Bryan, Texas.  Funeral services will be on Sunday, October 14, at 2 pm at Laurel Heights UMC in San Antonio, Texas. Special thanks to Maria Granados at Comfort Keepers and Hospice Brazos Valley for their love and care of Carolyn in her final days.