Carole Laverne Beshears

Carol La Verne Sligar was born in Visalia, California on July 18, 1950, to Carol and Wilma Clarice (Jones) Sligar. She had two sisters: Betty and Deann. She was married for the first time in 1969, to my mother Patricia and Aunt Amy’s father Rodney John Fretwell, divorced him in 1974, when my Aunt Amy was a baby. She wa a single mother for about a year when she met the love of her life, Roy Lee Beshears. He was a single father with two boys Troy and Todd and a little girl Sarena. They combined their families 23 December 1974. They later had two more children together Rachel and Roy.

As a child, my grandmother had strawberry blonde hair, was small and had a gap between her teeth. She had a small hairy dog named Sam. She was barrette his hair out of his eyes. He was her best friend. He was never too busy too listen to her or give her advice. She recalled the summers in the San Joaquin Valley, as hot and adventure filled. She caught tad poles and went swimming. The sun would heat up the tar on the road and she would squeeze the hot tar between her toes. She wore cotton dresses to school and sandals. She and her sisters shared a large blue coat.

She attended thirteen different elementary schools. That wasn’t very much fun. It was difficult for her to learn to read because her family moved so often.

She lived the longest period of time in a three bedroom house in East Bakersfield, California. This was very good for her because her grandparents lived close by. They made life fun. They were wonderful teachers. They gave her stability. They improved her life.

She had many responsibilities. She cared for her Great-Grandmother Rachel Stone and her two sisters. She cooked, cleaned and did the dishes while her parents worked very hard.

She graduated from Cal-Poly- San Luis Obispo with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and did her graduate work in education. In college she discovered the things that would bring her the most joy. She learned how to teach others to read, to enlarge her scope of personal reading, her favorite recreation. She found interest and success with ceramics.

From college she began her adult jobs. Her first job out of college was a social worker in Death Valley, California. She has been an elementary school teacher, taught zero through third grade in the prison system, taught at community colleges and has worked in job training at many adult schools.

Her favorite memories have been the birth of her children, her husband’s grin, seeing her children go to college and marry, and playing with her grandchildren. Grandma’s advice, “Pay attention!”