Carol Routt Caldwell
3 years ago
Carol was born in Sonora, Ky. After graduating from East Hardin High School in 1967 she attended Western Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky before beginning her 40-year career as a public school teacher.
She met J. Mike Caldwell (Panhandle HS Class of 1967) while working as an Educational Specialist at Fort Knox and they were married Nov. 28, 1975, and moved to Texas where he worked with his father.
Carol taught both Special Education and Art during her career. She first taught at G.C. Burkhead Elementary in Elizabethtown, Ky., then as an Education Specialist at The Armor School at Fort Knox, then in Texas at schools in Pampa and Amarillo before they returned to Kentucky. She then returned to Burkhead until retiring in 2000. Retirement didn’t suit Carol, so she took a part-time position at Burkhead for a year, then a full-time position at Lincoln Trail Elementary until 2008. She then taught at Morningside Elementary for four years before she became a regular substitute teacher until she did retire in 2019 after nearly 40 of teaching in public schools.
Carol loved animals and combined her love of teaching with her love of horses and operated an Equine Therapy program for special needs students for several years.
She was preceded in death by her parents; and her brother, Bill Routt.
Survivors include her husband, Mike; and their two sons, Drew (and Carol’s adored daughter-in-law, Monica) of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. and Zac of Glendale, Ky.
Other surviving family members include Bill’s wife Marilyn, his two children and three grandchildren; Jim Routt (Donna) of Sonora, their two children and four grandchildren; and David (Toni) of Greensboro, N.C., their two children and two grandchildren. “Aunt Carol” will also be missed by the 21 grandchildren of Mike’s six siblings and numerous Special Friends all across America.
She chose to be cremated and a memorial service will be scheduled this spring when her friends can gather and tell the stories of her life and scatter her ashes on the hillside where her horses are buried.
Her preference for any memorials would be donations to your local animal shelter or the Friends of Hardin County Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 951, Elizabethtown KY 42701.