Carolyn Belle (Parker) Pina, 77 went on to meet her Heavenly Father at dusk on Friday August 23, 2019.

A graveside service will be at 2:00 PM on Friday, September 6, 2019 at Graceland Cemetery.

Born Mary Carolyn Belle Parker on Monday June 22, 1942 in Orange, Massachusetts to Nelson Ely & Alfreda (Desreuisseau) Parker.  She went to Catholic Girls School where she learned the beautiful art of sewing. After graduation in 1959 she began working at Boston General Hospital where she went on to earn her nursing degree.  While working as a nurse she married her first husband and gave birth to her first child William (Bill) in 1961 and from that moment on she began living her life for her children.  Her mothering nature was strong, adding to her children in 1965 with her first daughter Tracy and in 1966 with another son Richard.  She became a military wife in Reno Nevada in 1968 and a single mother as her husband went off to Vietnam.  She lived various places as a military wife, California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Georgia, Virginia and South Dakota.  In 1976 she had her final child another daughter named Adrienne.

She was a woman who wore many hats and loved them all.  She was a nurse, home health nurse and caregiver.  After having to quit nursing due to a back injury she went on to work at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary in Mitchell, SD.  There she kept kids safe on the playground, worked as the crossing guard to get kids to and from school safe, she was a special education aide, office assistant and helped with getting a fence around the school.  After 19 years she retired from the school.  Her hobbies included her love of sewing, cooking and crafting and she was good at them all. She could make a meal out of nothing.  She could sew us an outfit and have it done by the time we had to go to school the next day and was amazing at needle point and painting.  Her biggest love was spending time with her family.  She showed the greatest amount of unconditional love.  She made sure her children knew they were her everything.  Just her and 4 kids turned into a huge family.  She went above and beyond to make people feel wanted and loved.  She always showed us faith, strength, love and kindness.  She was amazing for making people laugh and did it often. She had her head in the clouds and her feet on the ground.  She will be missed by so many who loved her.

I leave you with our mother's famous words of wisdom: You will get glad in the same skin you got mad in.  When you have your own child you then understand how much I love you.  You can do anything you want in life you just have to put your mind to it and want it bad enough in your heart.  God's light works just fine (when turning off light switches during the day time).  This hurts me more than it will hurt you.  I love you more than you will ever know.  We will miss her love, hugs, kisses, her smile, her sky-blue eyes, her laugh.  Her wit was quick and her strength was remarkable. We will also miss her ability to get stains out of anything, her fixing our favorite clothes, her Ambrosia fruit salad and her Giblet gravy at holidays.

She enjoyed sharing her life with her four children William "Bill" & Brandy Smith, Tracy (Munroe)& Gary Jackson, Richard "Ric" & Lisa Munroe and Adrienne (Pina) & Terry Hunter.  She had 15 Grandchildren: Will "Trac", Nora Lorraine, Allen, Cassie, Michael, Brittany, Alisha Belle, Mia, Monica, Tristin Ely, Caden, Shae, Jozie Raine, Sadie Jo, and Jordan.  She also had 9 great grandchildren; Houston, Tayven, Ayiona Belle, Journey, Kierrah Mae, Kendall, Xander, Oliver and Arayiah.

Meeting to take her home to Heaven is her beloved best friend and father Nelson Ely Parker, her amazing Grandma Bellle Parker, a very special Aunt Edie an Uncle Cy, her God son Robert "Bobby" Smith and her Grand-daughter Nora Lorraine Smith