September 22, 1939 to January 2, 2024

Carole Morris left for a new adventure on January 2, 2024, leaving her loving family behind.

Carole was a Brooklyn girl through and through. She started her first adventure in Brooklyn at P.S. 138 and graduated from Saint Joseph’s High School. After, she joined her family in New York’s Catskills and began her adult life at Channel Master in Ellenville.

Tiring of the quiet, rural life, she was drawn to the excitement of Washington, D.C., working with the F.B.I. and, later, with an immigration law firm. It was during this adventure that she met and fell in love with a soldier from California. She married David Morris in 1964; they were later joined by daughters Juliette Leigh (1966) and Bonnie Elizabeth (1968).

Looking for a quieter environment in which to raise their daughters, the four of them moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1969, where the girls started school and Carole began working with social programs for the disadvantaged… an involvement that she continued for most of her life, satisfying what she liked to call “a sense of purpose.”

After making trips to the West and exploring the beaches and the mountains, she determined that northern California was the place to start a new episode in her adventures. She wanted to raise her family and continue her education… which had been put on hold in Washington. They moved to Alamo, California, in 1973. Almost immediately, she began classes in anthropology at Diablo Valley College in Concord. She matriculated to San Jose State University soon after the family purchased their first home in the Evergreen area of San Jose in 1975. Working at law firms during the day and going to school at night, she was wholeheartedly supported by her family. Needless to say, her graduation from SJSU with a BA in English with honors in 1992 was joyously celebrated by her family and friends.

By 1990, the celebration of her 25th wedding anniversary and her 50th birthday opened a new adventure period in her life. She initially chose to travel to Italy with her newly widowed mother, then offered the next destination to David who chose Kenya. That was followed by Egypt, another trip to Italy, Nepal, Tibet, France (3), Ireland, and Austria… for Mozart’s 250th birthday party.

In 1998 with the girls on their own, she decided it was time for a quiet adventure in the mountains, choosing Rough and Ready as an ideal retirement home. While David continued to commute to Silicon Valley for several years, Carole surrounded herself with dogs: Hollis, Byron, and Poppy. Gardening was not sufficient for her “sense of purpose” so she volunteered to work at the Nevada County Food Bank where she worked for more than 22 years. She then found additional time for KVMR, performing with CATS and the Rough and Ready Succession Day play.

Eventually, she found even greater “purpose” with the original migratory version of Hospitality House, bragging that she was “sleeping around” at the various host churches, continuing as a Saturday night volunteer with Utah’s Place until COVID restrictions forced her out.

Finally, in 2014, she moved to Nevada City to be closer to “her boys”, Evan and Derek Hicks. Retiring from the Food Bank in 2023, she began to see her purposeful adventure period coming to an end and put her waning energy to walking, taking care of her dogs and husband… in that order. In 2018, she was honored by Hospitality House with their “Love in Action” award and the Food Bank honored her at a luncheon in November 2023.

Carole’s vitality and strength began to fail last summer and she was unable to complete her morning walks, blaming it all on advancing age. Her difficulties were finally realized by the medical community and she was briefly hospitalized in December, Fully aware of her situation, she agreed to hospice care at home and prepared for another adventure.

Carole left behind an adoring and grateful family: David, her husband of 59 years and five months; daughters Juliette Williams of Nevada City and Bonnie Sauer and her husband Christopher Sauer of South Lake Tahoe; brother Edward O’Brien of Colombia, S.A.; Judith O’Brien Van Put and her husband Edward Van Put of Livingston Manor, N.Y.; “her boys” –grandsons Evan Hicks of Reno and Derek Hicks of Flagstaff, Arizona; many in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews; and so many friends that we have not been able to reach out to them all.

A soiree in remembrance of her adventures will be held February 18, 2024, from 1-3 at the Miner’s Foundry.

Everyone who knew her is welcome. Any further information, please email bsauer265@gmail.com

In lieu of flowers, remember her with donations to Casa de los Pobres, P.O. Box 432256, San Ysidro, CA 92143; Hospitality House; or Food Bank of Nevada County.