Funeral services for Carol Virginia Turrentine, 77, Lawrence, will be 2 pm, Tuesday, August 4, 2020, at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery. A visitation will be from 6-7 pm, Monday.
Carol passed away at her home in Lawrence, KS, on July 28th, 2020.
Carol was born on March 8, 1943 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas to Roger and Lana Baskin, and spent most of her early years living in Hartman, Arkansas, with the exception of a two-year stint in San Francisco, California after WWII ended. In 1951, the Baskin family moved from Hartman to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. There she attended White Hall High School and graduated at the top of her class in 1961. She attended Arkansas State Teacher’s College (now the University of Central Arkansas) in Conway and graduated in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in French and a minor in Spanish.
While teaching at Pine Bluff High School, she attended St. Luke United Methodist Church where she was introduced to a fellow Sunday school classmate named Jim Turrentine. He asked her out to lunch after church one day and they continued to date for several months. During that time, Jim was drafted into the Army, and Carol received a National Defense Education Act (NDEA) fellowship to attend the University of Arkansas where she earned a Master of Arts degree in Spanish. Because of Jim’s engineering background, he wasn’t sent to Vietnam, but rather to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The couple was married on January 23rd, 1969 at that same church they met, and after completing her studies at the U of A, she joined her husband in Huntsville and taught Spanish at Grissom High School. The couple remained there until Jim’s discharge in 1970 and then moved back to Pine Bluff, where she taught at two junior high schools. In 1971, she became pregnant and gave birth to her first son (Clayton) in December 1971. In 1974, Jim landed a better engineering job at Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, and the family moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where her second son (Edward), was born in November of that year. Then in March 1976, her third son (Michael) was born.
In 1987, she received a Master of Science in Education degree from the University of Kansas, with a focus on literacy. For a short time she tutored junior high students who had problems with reading.
In addition to reading, Carol also had a love for house cats, especially calicoes. Despite battling multiple sclerosis most of her adult life and the physical limitations that resulted, she was still able to swim 2-3 times a week.
She is survived by her husband, Jim Turrentine of Lawrence, KS, her three sons, Clayton Turrentine and his wife, Shirley, of Overland Park, KS, Edward Turrentine of West Palm Beach, FL, and Michael Turrentine and his wife, Susan, of Basehor, KS, and granddaughter Sarah Turrentine.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana Street, Lawrence, Kansas 66044.
