Carol Ann Stevens

Alpine

Born on December 16, 1949 to Charles and Carlene Bell of Coshocton, Ohio. Rusty passed away at home with her husband and daughters present on October 2, 2013 from a short, but terminal, fight with cancer.

She graduated from Coshocton High School. She and her family then relocated to Michigan (she wasn’t thrilled with that relocation as she was a staunch Ohio State fan).

She attended Madonna College with the intent of becoming a social worker until her counselor told her that with her outgoing, giving and caring personality that profession wasn’t right for her. She then enrolled at Sinai Hospital School of Nursing in Detroit where she obtained her L.V.N., which was a much better choice.

She married on October 8, 1971, obtained her Calif. Nursing license and worked for ten years in nursing until her first daughter, Jamie, was born. Her second daughter, Michelle, was born five years later.

She devoted many hours assisting in her kid’s classrooms, being on the School Site Council, working as a substitute school nurse (at Boulder Oaks) and assisting with the reading incentive programs in the schools the girls were attending. She was a Girl Scout Daisy leader, a small animal leader for the Alpine Amigos 4-H, and assisted as a soccer coach.

When the girls enrolled at St. Kieran’s Catholic School she organized and ran the school’s library and the reading incentive program.

When the girls finished school she applied for the librarian, tutor position at the Viejas Indian Reservation. The casino was in the early stages of construction at that time and all new applicants had to be interviewed by the Tribal Elders. One asked if she was “one of the new ‘want-to-be’ Indians”, her reply was “No…I’m Irish !”. She was hired.

She worked for the Viejas Tribal Education Dept. as librarian and community educator for about fifteen years where she established and operated the school’s library, set up the community library at the pre-school operated by Robert Brown, tutored after school students, along with the home school students and established the reading incentive program. She left Viejas when her granddaughter was born on May 6, 2007.

She is survived by her husband William G. Stevens, daughters Jamie Jolene and Michelle Bell Stevens, granddaughter Melody Ann Haskins, brother James Bell of Simi Hills CA., numerous nieces and nephews as well as grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Bill, Jamie and Michelle would like to thank all of Rusty’s family, friends and former co-workers for sharing their lives with her.