Carol Irene Ramthun, of Byron, passed away Saturday, July 18th at Madonna Towers SNF in Rochester, MN. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

Carol was born on February 12, 1930 to Paul and Lila Clark on the family farm in Oronoco, MN. She attended Oronoco schools from 1st through 8th grade. She then left home moving to Rochester and worked her way through high school graduating from Rochester High School in 1948. She attended Rochester Junior College and took bookkeeping classes.

She met the love of her life, Chuck Ramthun, at a dance at the armory and 2 years later on June 18th, 1949, they were married. He was the one who taught her to drive a car because they didn’t have driving lessons. They lived in Rochester for five years before moving to Byron where Chuck built their first home in 1954.

Carol had many bookkeeping jobs starting out at DeSoto Produce, then Richmond’s Bootery, Tlougan Oil, Drs. Welte and Block Optometry, and Charles Ramthun Homebuilding.

Carol and Chuck raised 3 daughters. Camping, boating, fishing, and water skiing were their favorite family activities.

Both Carol and Chuck loved sports and followed Byron High School sports attending lots of soccer games for the grandkids. They especially loved going to and helping out at track and field events. They gave out 2 BHS sports scholarships for 34 years. Both of them were inducted into the Byron Sports Hall of Fame for their support of Byron High School athletics.

They enjoyed their dancing, fishing trips to Manitoba every summer on Reed Lake with their boat and motorhome, flying to the Oshkosh Air Show (where she was the plane navigator and Chuck flew the plane) and also taking their grandchildren to the airshows. They also enjoyed motorhome trips to Alaska and throughout Canada and the US and trips to Hawaii and Mexico with good friends.

Carol also kept busy serving on many different Byron United Methodist committees, heading up the Byron election board, volunteering at the school, making soups for the elderly, and making lots of food for the annual snowmobile March of Dimes fundraiser and Byron Sportsman club fundraisers. She was a long-time member of the Byron United Methodist Church.

Carol loved being outdoors tending to her gardens and flowers and spent each fall canning and freezing all her produce and sharing her goods with the family. Spending time with family, especially her grandchildren and great grandchildren and the holidays were especially happy times.

She loved playing ping pong and playing all kinds of card games including bridge, whist, 500, cribbage, and hand & foot. She took that love with her to Madonna Summit (even teaching a new friend there to play cribbage in her 90’s). In her later years, she fell in love with reading books and working on puzzles.

Carol is survived by her daughters, Michelle Seibel, of Rochester, and Teresa (Jeff) Greene, of Byron and son-in-law, Dave Ramsey (Sun City West, AZ). She is also survived by three grandchildren: Paul (Tara) Greene, Brianna (Drew) Cooper, and Tiffany (Marc) Holt, and four great-grandchildren: Ethan and Logan Greene, and Camille and Zoe Cooper.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Charles, daughter, Debra Ramsey, both parents, 3 brothers (Stanley, Allen and David), and 3 sisters (Shirley, Ruth, and Karen).

Visitation will be from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on August 19th at the Byron Funeral Home, and 1 hour before the funeral service on August 20th, at 11:00 at the Byron United Methodist Church.

A huge thank you goes out to the wonderful caring people that she got to know that took care of her at Madonna Towers and Mayo Hospice.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the Byron High School track and field account.