Carol Ina Montgomery

A brief viewing will be held on Wednesday, August 11,2021 from 10:30a.m. - 11:00a.m. in Resthaven Funeral Home, with a Graveside Service to follow at 11:30a.m. She will be interred beside her husband, Ralph L. Montgomery.

Carol Ina Morrow was born Dec. 8, 1928, in Aurora, Wisconsin, to Henry and Mable Calkins Morrow. She graduated in 1946 at age 16 from Berlin High School. At 17, she and her sister, Ramona, traveled to California to visit a friend of their mother. There, at the bus depot in San Diego, she met her future husband, a U.S. Navy sailor from Boulder, Colorado. Their first date was Valentine’s Day, and they married three months later in Wisconsin.

Carol and Ralph Montgomery moved to Lubbock in 1947 and soon had two daughters and a son. Mrs. Montgomery put off her childhood desire to become a nurse until her children were in college. Texas Tech at that time did not have a nursing degree program, but she attended Tech to attain the prerequisites. In studying to become a registered nurse, Mrs. Montgomery attended Methodist Hospital School of Nursing, earning her RN diploma in 1972. She received the Dr. J.T. Kruegar Sr. Memorial Award as the graduate with the highest scholastic achievement and was also named by the faculty of the school as “Ideal Student Nurse.”

She earned an Associate of Science degree in nursing from South Plains College, a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from West Texas A&M University and a Master of Science degree from the University of Texas. In 1978 she went to Parkland Hospital (Dallas) to study to become a women’s health nurse practitioner. The majority of her work was as a health practitioner.

To earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she challenged and successfully passed many courses at West Texas State University and the University of Texas to gain her credits. While her master’s degree is from UT, she achieved her goal by studying from home to get her degree.

Of more than 1,300 nurses who took their state board exams with her, Mrs. Montgomery scored highest.

During the years she was getting her degrees, Mrs. Montgomery worked as an instructor at Methodist Hospital School of Nursing, at Lubbock Family Planning, and for the state of Texas. While working for the state, she traveled throughout the region as a women’s health specialist. Mrs. Montgomery was a no-nonsense instructor and nurse.

Ralph Montgomery, a Lubbock building contractor, died Aug. 9, 2013. Following his passing, Mrs. Montgomery lived for 4 1/2 years at Wilshire Place before she broke a hip and later moved into Wilshire on Fourth. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

Mrs. Montgomery retired in 2000 after working about 30 years in her late-blooming career. She joined a carving club and collected and sewed clothes for used Cabbage Patch dolls to give needy children at Christmas. She was an excellent and meticulous seamstress, who made her daughters’ school clothes and prom formals. In later years, she sewed nightshirts and blankets for stillborn babies at Covenant Hospital so their parents could take memory photos and bury their babies with care and dignity.

She was an assistant Girl Scout troop leader and chaperoned high school trips and dances.

In 1978, Ralph Montgomery suffered a stroke that left him partially handicapped. When Mrs. Montgomery would come home after her day’s work, he would have dinner ready and waiting. They were best friends.

Mrs. Montgomery was preceded in death by her husband, by her parents, by her Lubbock sister and close friend, Ramona Hicks; and by her Oregon, Ill., sister, Phyllis Morrow Kaskavage.

Survivors include daughter, Jody Montgomery Armstrong, and her husband, Randy Armstrong, of Abilene; daughter, Jerry Montgomery, and husband, Jim Vaught, of Childress; son, Roland Montgomery, and wife, Vicki Sybert, of Lubbock; grandson, Eric, and wife, Rebecca, of Abilene; nephews, David Hicks and Stewart Hicks and families, of Lubbock; Travis Hicks and family, of San Antonio; and Kent Hicks of Taos, N.M.; a brother, Pat Morrow, and wife, Marsha, of Wild Rose, Wisc. She also has many nieces and nephews in Wisconsin and Illinois and other parts of the country.

The family would like to thank Teri Gardner and the staffs at Wilshire Place and Wilshire on Fourth for the loving and compassionate care they provided Carol for the past 6 1/2 years. Donations in Carol’s name may be made to a charity of choice.