Mary "Carol" Wood

Mary “Carol” Wood, 92, of Wenatchee, died Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Colonial Vista’s skilled nursing center. Carol was born June 28, 1930, to John Morgan and Mary Nevada (Billingsley) Porter in Ephrata, WA. Her entire childhood was spent in Grant County, primarily Ephrata. She graduated from Ephrata High School in 1947, just shy of her 17th birthday. Carol married Richard Clark “Dick” Wood on May 8, 1948, at her family home in Ephrata. They lived in Ephrata for a short time before moving to Othello, and then to Okanogan in 1951. The family moved to Wenatchee in 1958 where they raised their four children and fostered six others. In 1963 Carol entered Wenatchee Valley College’s licensed practical nurse program, then worked as an LPN at Deaconess Hospital until she and Dick retired in 1978 to travel the U.S. in their trailer. In the early 1980s they self-built their retirement home in Malaga close to Three Lakes Golf Club and spent many years golfing, pursuing hobbies and spending time with family. After Dick’s death in 1994, Carol filled her life with golfing, painting landscapes, traveling to New Zealand, Europe, the Panama Canal, and South America, and entertaining her children and grandchildren. She moved to an independent apartment at Colonial Vista in 2011. Strong, caring, fun loving, family-oriented, engaging, with a hysterical sense of humor, and accepting of others, Carol was more than words could really describe. If you were a good human being and you loved and accepted others, you were welcome in her life. She made friends of all generations and retained them as family her whole life. She and sister-in-law Elaine were the life of the party at an intergenerational girls’ weekend for 15 summers. In her earlier years she was a terrific bowler, a champion camper with her family and loved being in the water. A trailblazer always up for an adventure, in her fifties she was the lone woman rafting the Salmon River for a week with 5 men from Texas, never letting them outdo her! In her early seventies she was the oldest worker on an all-female Habitat for Humanity crew. Also, in her seventies, she was first in the chair when she, daughters and granddaughters decided to all get a family tattoo of a butterfly. She stunned the tattooist when she mischievously asked if he took Medicare as payment! Carol is survived by four elderly orphans: Mary (Sam) Penhallegon of Wenatchee; Richard “Rick” (Alice) Wood of Bonners Ferry, ID; Jennifer (Dan) Flick of Burien, WA; and Christie (Todd) Murren of Wenatchee, as well as 8 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren and 9 great-greats. She was preceded in death by her parents, her two brothers Jack and Jim, and husband Dick. Though she will be missed and remembered by many, per Carol’s wishes no service is planned. Family asks that you remember the good times. Memorials may be made to the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society or Salvation Army. Arrangements by Chapel of the Valley, East Wenatchee.

Mary "Carol" Wood

June 28, 1930 - April 13, 2023