Lillian Carl | News, Sports, Jobs

Lillian Kay Carl, mother and friend to many, died Wednesday after a long battle with lung and heart disease and cancer. She was 80 years old.

Mrs. Carl was born on November 15, 1943, in Duluth, Kansas, the second child of Iverna and Ben Teske. She graduated from high school in 1961. Her dream was to become a flight attendant, so she went to Kansas City, Missouri, to attend Weaver Airline Personnel School.

After being offered a job with Frontier Airlines, she moved to Denver, where she eventually got a job as a flight attendant for Continental Airlines. One of her favorite flights was working on the plane that flew the Denver Broncos to football games.

In 1967, she married Robert Carl in Duluth. The young couple lived in Wichita, St. Louis, and Des Moines, Iowa, before moving to Lawrence, Kansas, where they ran the Kwik Shop grocery store on 23rd Street for many years.

Mrs. Carl gave birth to two daughters, Traci in 1972 and Tonya in 1977. She and Mr. Carl divorced in 1984.

She held many different jobs over the years, including helping students with housing at the University of Kansas and working as a switchboard operator for the deaf at AT&T in Lawrence. She was active in Trinity Lutheran Church in Lawrence, Kansas, and enjoyed playing cards with her family and friends.

Mrs. Carl was always deeply grateful to all of her doctors who helped her heal a heart scarred by rheumatic fever as a child; beat lung cancer, at least temporarily; and live with COPD. Their efforts allowed her to meet her five grandchildren and see two graduate from high school.

It was her last wish to help future doctors extend the lives of others, so five years ago she decided to donate her body to the University of Kansas Medical Center after her death.

She is survived by her siblings, Carole Schwarz, Gary Teske, Harlan Teske, and Sherry Rengstorf; her daughters and their husbands, Tonya and Eric Mater, and Traci Carl and Jorge Melchor; her grandchildren, Lucinda, Sydney, and Matilda Mater; and Elly and Kyra Melchor. She was preceded in death by her mother, father, and a stillborn son, Mark Carl.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, August 31, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lawrence. Burial will be in Duluth Cemetery at a date to be determined.

Memorial contributions may be made in Lillian’s name to the American Lung Association and may be sent to Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th Street, Lawrence, KS 66044.

For more information or to leave a condolence, visit warrenmcelwain.com.