In Memory

Lana Kay Wynn (Carbo)

Lana Kay Wynn (Carbo)

           In loving memory of our dear classmate

Lana Kay Wynn Carbo
1946-2020

Lana Kay Carbo closed her eyes for the last time on earth and opened her new eyes in heaven on Palm Sunday, April 5th, 2020. While reading her Bible and Oswald Chambers devotional at her home in Euless, TX, Kay entered the arms of her sweet Jesus. Suffering for a lifetime with severe, chronic asthma, her earthly body declined over the years from treatments and medications. Her death resulted from these complications. We take comfort in knowing she is now with Jesus, her health fully restored; yet, we are left behind with a deep hole in our hearts. In the words of her husband, “My Dear Sweet Kay has finally been healed.”    

She was born Lana Kay Wynn on September 12, 1946 to Thomas Ralph Wynn and Mary Frances Sharp Wynn in Palestine, Texas.

Marrying her high school sweetheart, Robert Bernard Carbo, in 1966, they celebrated 54 years of marriage on March 26, 2020.

Together Ben and Kay made their home and began their family in Houston, TX with the birth of their son, Robert Wynn Carbo and their daughter, Kay Ellen Carbo. In 1979, they moved to Kay’s hometown of Palestine, TX to give their kids wonderful experiences one can only have in small town Texas. 

All who knew Kay knew she loved her Savior and her family deeply and fully dedicated her life to both. Her 2 children and 13 grandchildren(who lovingly called her Mimi) were the light of her world. Her faith and spiritual life she passed on to the next generation and are her greatest legacy. She was a blessing to all and a servant of God to the very end of her life. Her Bible and prayer journaling resulted in steno pad after steno pad being filled with God's words and blessings over her family and friends. Forget gold and silver and earthly riches. We choose her tattered Bible and these prayer-filled dime store notebooks as our heritage, our valued spiritual heritage. 

A dedicated educator, Kay taught 2nd, 5th, and 6th grades for 20 plus years in Houston ISD, Spring ISD, Dyersburg, TN, and H.E.B. She retired in 2002 from the HEB school district. She always remained active in the HEB Retired Teachers Association giving back to the educational community. 

She is survived by her husband, Robert Bernard Carbo of Euless; son, Robert Wynn Carbo of Southlake; daughter in law, Donna Kay Carbo;  grandchildren David Carbo, Elaina Carbo, Emily Carbo, Elise Carbo, Ella Carbo, Will Carbo, and Blake Carbo; daughter, Kay Ellen Crawford of Washington, TX; son-in-law, Aaron Crawford; grandchildren Carolina Crawford, Julia Crawford, Lillia Crawford, Hannah Crawford, Nehemiah Crawford, and Ezra Crawford; sister-in-law, Cheryl Carbo Engle of League City; and sister, Ellen Ann Wynn Langston of Garland; and many loving cousins, nieces, and nephews. Kay was preceded in death by her father, Thomas Ralph Wynn; mother, Mary Frances Sharp Wynn; and sister, Mary Frances Wynn Jimenez. 

A private family only burial will take place on Friday, April 10th at Grapevine Cemetery in Grapevine, Texas. A future memorial to celebrate the life of Lana Kay Carbo will be planned as soon as possible.



 
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04/11/20 04:44 AM #8    

Joanna Hinton (Garrett)

May the Lord rock you in peace and love as you have for so many. I extend my love to your family.

Joanna Hinton Garrett

 


04/11/20 10:28 AM #9    

Connie Mahnke (VanNess)

Ben,

Didn't know you or Kay very well.  I wish to extend my condolesences to you and your family.  Hope you and your family are staying healthy.  Here in Florida we are doing all necessary to stay safe.

Again, Sorry for your loss.

 

Connie Mahnke Van Ness

 

 


04/12/20 08:25 AM #10    

Robert (Ben) Carbo

Joanna, I'm getting a visual on that and it's beautiful. Thank you for the word picture. You are special.

04/12/20 10:42 AM #11    

Patricia Bissonnet (Bissonnet)

Ben--

I remember Kay as a bright, friendly young woman, kind and inclusive to all who knew her.  I am so glad that the two of you had 54 years together, and built a wonderful family.   I pray  for you to have the peace and joy of wonderful memories.


04/12/20 01:32 PM #12    

Carolyn Johnson (Blake)

Robert, and all your family, I am so sorry for your loss and I know you miss her terribly. I didn't know her well in school but I do remember she was very much liked by her classmates, and so well thought of. I am glad you and she have had your faith to see you through this great transition. God bless you all.

Carolyn


04/13/20 12:30 PM #13    

Mary Adrienne Pendery (Critcher)

Benny, I am so sorry to hear of your loss of Kay.  She was such a sweet, kind girl at Waltrip, and how wonderful that you two built such a good life and family together over these many years.  I hope you'll be comforted by your precious memories until you meet again on the other side.


09/14/20 12:26 PM #14    

Robert (Ben) Carbo

On Saturday, Spetember 12, 2020, her birthday, we celebrated Kay's life with a memorial service at Cross City Church in Euless, Texas.  You can go to:  https://boxcast.tv/view/carbo-memorial-172733 until 9/15/2020 at 9:01 pm to view it.


12/08/20 12:21 AM #15    

Robert (Ben) Carbo

Our love story starts out like a Beatles hit song and the beat goes on.

 "Well she was just 16

  If you know what I mean

  And the way she looked was way beyond compare

  Well she looked at me and I, I could see that I had fallen in love with her."

It happened at a "back to school party" at someone's house just prior to the beginning of our sophomore year at Waltrip High School.  I had a steady back then so I didn't cross the room then as the song goes. 

Later that year my good friend Jimmy Cunningham and I were sitting together in the Waltrip cafeteria eating lunch one day.  Jimmy's steady girlfriend's mother had ended their relationship by chasing Jimmy down the street with a butcher knife.  At about the same time my steady girlfriend's mother informed her daughter we were getting too serious and she needed to date other boys while continuing to date me.  I never believed that was the real reason.  I think it had more to do with my horrible grades that first semester at Waltrip for her daughter was an honor student and ours was not a match any mother would prefer for her only child.

Jimmy and I were both available on that fateful day so Jimmy, the shy one, asked me to go over to where Kay Wynn was sitting and asked her if she would go out with him.  At first I told him that he needed to ask her, but then I realized it would give me an excuse to talk to the girl I had seen months before at the "back to school party".

When I came back to the table I informed Jimmy that Kay had accepted, but not with him.  As the song goes, "my heart went boom as I crossed that room and I never danced with another since I saw her standing there".  That was 57 years ago.  Thank you Jimmy for pointing the way to the perfect life partner that God had created just for me.

Jimmy and I played football together since our Black Jr High days and one day while on the practice field at Waltrip one of our teammates, Bernard Ash, said he was going to steal Kay away from me.  He was not the first or the last to tell me that.  Kay had caught the eye of every boy in school.

Jimmy overheard Bernard and was always ready to defend the honor of a friend.  I guess he inherited that that admirable trait from his ancestor who died defending the Alamo.  Before I could react Jimmy tore into poor Bernard (God rest his soul) and beat him all over the field until Bernard got in a lucky punch and knocked out one of Jimmy's front teeth.  Jimmy would later serve as an usher at our wedding and stood ready to take on anyone who dared to steal Kay away at the last minute.

They all said we would never make it, that we were too young (both 19 at the time) and that we couldn't take care of ourselves much less each other.  How wrong they proved to be.

We did indeed make it through the death of my father the day after we were married.  We made it through my absence the next month while I was going through basic training in the US Air Force.  We made it through my emergency appendectomy 3 days after completing basic training.  We made it through our 9 months stationed in the hostile environs of New Jersey where we lived on my base pay of $87 a month plus a $110 housing allowance.  We made it through the six weeks it took all of our household goods to reach us by slow train service.

We made it through my constantly being threatened with 120 day temporary duty assignments in Europe.  There was no way I was going to leave my young bride in New Jersey by herself and we could not afford to fly her back home.  Being desperate, I asked my sergeant for a solution to my dilemma. The sergeant told me sarcastically that the only way for me to get out of temporary duty assignments and get Kay's transportation back home paid for by Uncle Sam was to volunteer for Vietnam.  I shocked him when I told him to make it happen as quickly as possible.  This boy became a man that day knowing my first duty was to my wife and country whatever the cost.

During my year in Vietnam, I received my regular pay of less than $200 a month and an extra $65 in combat pay. I would send most of it back to Kay.  Kay continued to work at JC Penney's on North Shepherd and scrimped and saved enough to pay down on a new car and pay for classes at UofH.

After a year in Vietnam, I was given my choice of assignments and I chose the closest base to home for my last 2 years in the Air Force.  When I got my orders I wrote Kay and quoted the lyrics from a popular song back then, "Abilene, Abilene, sweetest town I've ever seen, our home town."

Those 2 years were good ones; Kay worked at the JC Penney's store downtown while I ran a B-52 Armaments & Electronics warehouse on the flight line at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas.  I finally made sergeant grade and with my improved rate of pay and Kay's paycheck at Penny's we were able to save $500 a month so that we would have enough money to enroll at Lamar Tech when I was discharged.  Kay did well at Lamar, me not so well.  I dropped out and started trying to find work in Houston.  I applied everywhere, but so did thousands of other returning veterans.  Then one fateful day Bill Polk came by the house and told Kay he had applied for the Houston Police Academy and Kay knew right then that I would be applying the next day.

I got through the police academy with flying colors graduating in the top ten of the class on December 18, 1970.  Kay continued her education at U of H while pregnant with our first born.  She was determined to fulfill her dream since she was five years old of becoming a teacher and on December 22, 1972 she received a Bachelor of Science in Education.  Kay began her teaching career in Houston at Love Elementary and went on to teach in Spring, Palestine, Tennessee and retired from HEB (Hurst Euless Bedford) with 25 years of service in 2002.

I won't share the rest of the story now because I plan to self publish a book in the future to pass on to the family.

   I will, however, mention the joys of our life.  After five years of marriage we were blessed with the birth of a son, Bob, and five years later a daughter, Kay Ellen.  No parents could be prouder of their children because they carried forth in following God in their relationships with their spouses and children.

We raised our little family in Houston, Spring, and later in Palestine and Dyersburg, Tennessee.  And then our Aggie, Bob, married Aggie Donna Kay and then came David, Elaina, Emily, Elise, Ella, Will and Blake.  Our daughter not to be outdone married Aaron and then came Carolina Kay, Julia Joy, Lillia Love, Hannah Hope, Nehemiah, and finally Ezra.  The heritage of faith continues. 

So how were we able to make it when many said it would not last?  It is pretty simple, but unfortunately too many miss it.  It was an enduring love for each other committed until death to serve each other.  But that is not enough for you see what really sealed the deal for us was our belief in God and our abiding in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  He has led us through our joys and sorrows and protected us from temptations and quite frankly has intervened many times on my behalf in actually keeping me alive so that I could provide for the family and care for my precious Kay in sickness and health.  It was her abiding watch care over me that sustained me throughout our lives. It was through God's loving mercy that he saved us and nurtured us to raise up a whole host that are following Jesus even now.

God has blessed our little family beyond measure through our precious children and their Christian spouses.

My precious Kay passed away at home on April 5, 2020 after a long battle with asthma and the effects of the strong medications she had to take to control it which finally caused her heart to fail.

I visited the stone mason who is preparing Kay and my head stone yesterday.  I designed the stone myself and I believe Kay would be well pleased.  On the back of the headstone I listed all of our children, their spouses and our thirteen grandchildren. The stone mason suggested I not list the spouses in the event of divorce.  I laughed and told him that when God joined this line of Carbo’s, they were married for life.

And I owe it all to God leading me when I first saw her standing there.


12/08/20 01:10 PM #16    

Roger Felton

Kay was sweeter than honey on sugar and I was tickled that ya'll chose my birthday to get married. My wife, Beverly, and I have been married 45 years and I never want to know what it would be like to be without her.  She keeps me alive.


12/12/20 07:58 PM #17    

Jeanne Spencer (Adams)

Beautifully written, Benny!  I can't wait to read the book later!!  You are a gifted writer with a special heart and love for Jesus.  


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