Jean Schill Carlson, age 93, went to be with her Savior Jesus Christ on April 16, 2023.
Jean was born on October 1, 1929, in Lancaster, Wisconsin, to Bernard J. Schill and Ruth Clementson Frye Schill. Her father worked for the Wisconsin Highway Department and then moved the family to Rockford, Illinois, where he was employed as a mechanical engineer and designer for JI Case Company. Jean attended Church Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High School, and graduated from West Rockford High School in 1947. She then entered nurses training at Rockford Memorial Hospital in 1947. Charles Freeman, the personnel manager, was a farseeing man. He started a three-and-a-half-year college course in conjunction with Rockford College (not Rockford University). The course was twelve months a year, seven days a week. Jean graduated in June of 1951, passed her Illinois State Board exams, and became a registered nurse. The nurses’ training included courses at Rockford Memorial Hospital, a three-and-a-half-month affiliation at Chicago State Psychiatric Hospital, as well as a three-and-a-half-month affiliation in Milwaukee Children’s Hospital.
In 1951, she married LeRoy E. Carlson in Rockford, Illinois. As Lee was a member of the National Guard, they were transferred to California with the 44th Quarter Master Corp. The Corp had been activated due to the Korean war. They returned to Rockford in 1952, where they had their first two sons, Mark and Cameron.
The family moved from Rockford Illinois to Pensacola, Florida, in 1968, where Jean worked at the Crippled Children’s Hospital. She had Daniel in 1971. In 1977, the family moved from Pensacola, Florida, to Daphne, Alabama, and then to Fairhope, Alabama.
In 1984, Jean received a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of South Alabama. She was a member of Fairhope First Baptist Church. She also had memberships in several Patriotic Societies requiring lineal descent including a long-time member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was an ardent genealogist tracing her family back to the arrival of Winthrop’s Fleet in 1630. Jean was also a member of the Sigma Pheta Tau International Honorary Nursing Society. She participated for many years in the Nurses’ Health Study Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She was a staunch pro-life Republican.
Jean was a committed Christian and a prayer warrior. She read her bible and prayed daily for her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and many others. Jean was also known for reading to her daughter-in-law’s first grade class, the neighborhood children and sitting and reading the Bible regularly with the infirmed at Mercy Medical in Fairhope, Alabama.
Jean was a gifted writer and could recite long sections of poetry into her 90’s. She would tell you that her best decision in life was accepting Christ as her Savior. She also loved baking, cooking, knitting, writing, traveling, bike riding, dancing, and ice skating as a girl.
Jean was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Lee and a son, Cameron. She is survived by her sister Susan Maddison of Fairhope, Alabama, her sons, Mark (Lisa) of Madison, Mississippi, and Daniel (Kristi) of Mobile, Alabama, and her grandchildren: Ashleigh (Josh), Megan, Taylor (Olivia), Jon Mark (Ali), David (Kaylie), Brooks, Parker, and Ellie. She is also survived by three great grandchildren, Aubrey, Karlie and Sonny; a niece, Mary, and a nephew, Jonathon.
A celebration of Jean’s life will be held on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at 12:30pm in the chapel of Wolfe-Bayview Funeral Home, Fairhope, AL. Visitation will begin at 11:30am. Interment will be held in Memory Gardens of Fairhope, following funeral services.
Pallbearers will be Jon Mark Carlson, David Carlson, Taylor Carlson, Brooks Carlson, Parker Carlson, and Jonathon Maddison. Honorary pallbearers will include Steve Ackerman, Lance Ward, Terry Knotts, Don Adcock, Scott Rice and Todd Cooper.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Women’s Care Ministries
