Carol Pate

Carol was born in the Kelsey community of Upshur County, Texas, into the Latter-day Saint community there which shaped her life.

She attended Gilmer public schools.

In 1955, after an introduction by her cousin Joy Hamberlin Grubbs, she married Billy Earl Grizzle of Longview, Texas, by whom she had three sons: Danny (b. 1957), Mark (1959-1925), and Gary (b. 1961).

In an era before telephones, courtship was conducted by letters mailed between Longview and Gilmer. Billy loved country music, and was a fan of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee and the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Hayride was known as the “Cradle of the Stars” because many up-and-coming artists appeared there, including major acts like Hank Williams.

These artists were drawn to nearby East Texas where, thanks to the oil boom, they were able to play weekday dates between their obligations at the Hayride. Because of this, Billy and Carol saw artists like Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley while they were still unknowns. Venues included the community room of the Upshur County Electric Co-Op.

After marriage, Billy worked a number of jobs at auto salvage yards, and eventually went to work for R.G. LeTourneau in Longview. In about 1968, Carol began work at another Longview industrial company, Stemco.

While remodeling their small home to incorporate an indoor washing machine, Billy was electrocuted in an accident on August 20, 1970. This left Carol a widow of 32 years with 3 young sons to raise. She devoted herself to this, relying heavily on the LDS community of Longview.

For many years, Carol did not date or remarry. Eventually, she met and married Glen Anderson, who had a young son named Scottie who Carol felt “needed a mother.” Scottie became Carol’s 4th son, and she raised him to adulthood.

Later in life, Carol married Tom Pate, and they resided in Bethany, Oklahoma (Oklahoma City), where Carol provided end of life care for Tom’s sister.

Carol’s LDS ward meeting house in Oklahoma was adjacent to the Oklahoma City temple. Carol maintained a LDS temple recommend.

Caring for others was a consistent theme of Carol’s life, of which many nieces, nephews, and single-mother co-workers can attest. Like her own mother, she worked as a care giver for others.

After Tom Pate passed, Carol spent the final years of her life living with son Danny in Longview, Texas.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was central to Carol’s life.

Her grandfather and grandmother, Bill and Mattie Lindsey, joined the Church in the late 1800s. After joining the Church in Central Alabama, they relocated their family to three different places in the American West. This included one in Utah before statehood, and two locations in Idaho where the transition from covered wagon to railroad was underway. Their lives were epic, and reflect periods of violence and range wars on the Oregon Trail.

Eventually, this all proved too much for Southerners not accustomed to winters in the northern Rocky Mountains. Bill and Mattie returned to the South, where they settled in Milam County, Texas, where many of their relatives had relocated following the Civil War. Carol’s mother, Connie, was born in Milam County.

Bill and Mattie ultimately had 16 children, and those 16 children, in turn, had 116 grandchildren. Late in her life, Mattie was featured in Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not.

When Kelsey became a designated gathering place for the saints, Bill and Mattie moved their family to Upshur County, Texas. It was there that Connie Lindsey, Carol’s mother, met and married Thomas Grisham Denton, known as Tommy. Tommy and Connie had 9 children, of whom Carol was the 8th and the last surviving sibling.

Carol’s father, Tommy Denton, was killed in the Texas City disaster on April 16, 1947. This remains the worst industrial accident in U.S. history, when the ship Grandcamp loaded with Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up in the Houston Ship Channel.

In order to pay taxes on his land in Kelsey, Tommy was working day labor at Monsanto Chemical Company, whose docks were next door to the company where the Grandcamp was being loaded.

Although Monsanto had no responsibility for the disaster, they paid full insurance to Connie, Carol’s mother. This allowed Connie to build a modern dairy farm on the Denton land in the Kelsey Creek Bottom. This dairy, run by Carol’s older brother Buck Denton, supported the family. Today, this land has been taken as part of the flood plain of Lake Gilmer.

Carol is survived by 3 sons (Danny, Gary, & Scottie), 8 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren.

Visitation will be held at Lakeview Funeral Home, 5000 West Harrison Road, Longview, TX 75604, US, on July 27, 2026, from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, followed by the Funeral Service at Lakeview Funeral Home on July 27, 2026, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm.