Carol Rich, beloved mother of three, wife of fifty-five years, bookkeeper to the family businesses for nearly thirty years, grandmother to five and great-grandmother to four made a lasting impression as someone who cared about others so much more than herself.
She was quick to deflect a helping hand or a compliment, but first to worry about others' comfort. She was very private -- until it was clear someone needed help, even those she didn't know at all. Then, whatever she had wasn't enough to give. Anyone who left her dinner table hungry did so of their own accord.
Oh, and she never met a package that couldn't be wrapped a second (or third) time.
The combination of kindness and care for what she had, great or small, was the surest sign that she had known poverty and hard times growing up, and never forgot what made her strong.
Carol Leamons was born in Burlington, Colorado, to Roy and Julia Leamons. Her mother died before Carol was two and early in life she came to live with her uncle and aunt, Alfred and Molly Rasmussen, in Nebraska. Carol graduated from Arcadia (Nebraska) High in 1946. While there, she had a part-time job at the Arcadia Food Center and helped her aunt who published the Arcadia Guide newspaper. (Later, as a young Nebraska mother, she put that experience to work serving as a correspondent for the Custer County Chief and Ord Quiz newspapers.)
She moved to nearby Ord after high school to work in the U.S. Employment Service office, first stop for many coming home from the service, including an Ord High grad who had enlisted in the Navy – Richard Rich. Carol and Rich married Oct. 19, 1947 and moved a few times, first to Iowa and then back to Nebraska, before heading to California in 1958. That's where Rich started his first service station business, and Carol started her career as shop bookkeeper.
They were quite the team through businesses in Auburn, Sacramento and Modesto before retiring in 1989.
In Modesto, Carol and Rich started one of the first Chevron minimarts in California and it was very successful. Rich died in 2003 and soon after Carol sold the home she had spent the longest time of her life in and moved to Davis, settling in University Retirement Community.
She is survived by her son Richard, wife, M'Lisse; daughter, Kristi and her husband, Doug Morse and children, Vinny and Tyler; son, Charles, wife, Anna, daughters, Laurie Gleason (husband, Matt and daughters, Emily and McKinley) and Kelly Hoppin (husband, Kevin); and son, John, wife, Denise, son, Andrew and daughter, Victoria.
A memorial service will be held 2-4 p.m., Saturday, September 30 at the University Retirement Community in Davis.
A private burial will be at San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery.

Published in the Modesto Bee on September 17, 2017.