Carol Hartsell

Carol was Senior of the Month at the Clovis Senior Center and wrote the following Bio for the Clovis Independent under the Senior Spotlight section a few years ago. It was a chilly October morning in 1935 when I made my appearance into this world. I was born in the upstairs front room of the old Jamestown Hotel. My parents were Joy Ament Ferrie and Dr. James William Ferrie. My sister Jane had been born 2-1/2 years earlier at the Sonora Hospital. My mother was born in Susanville. In 1906 she was living in San Francisco during the earthquake. As a teenager she lived on the Mule Shoe Cattle Ranch in Flagstaff, Arizona. She was a good horse woman and loved to tell stories of rattle snakes, cactus, sourdough biscuits and jerky gravy. She came back to California and earned her RN Degree from Los Angeles County General Hospital and danced many an evening away in the "Roaring 20's" My father was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His mother was educated at the Royal Academy of Arts in Edinburgh and his father, James Sr., was a mining engineer. They came to Lead, S.D. for James to work at the Great Homestake Gold mine. Mary Jane, my grandmother, divorced James Sr. There and proceeded to teach music and voice and to manage the Phebe Hurst Library. She also managed to snare Mr. Grier, the superintendent of the Great Homestake. My grandmother and Mrs. Hurst became close friends. My father knew William R. Hurst, Phebe's son, and told about attending parties at the Hurst Mansion where the place cards were gold plated and extravagant. My dad went to Yale and then to the University of Southern California for his dental degree. My parents met and married and felt the crash of Wall Street. The depression propelled my parents to move to the mountains where Dad pulled teeth for 50 cents a tooth, panned gold and managed the Jamestown Hotel. Once he pulled a tooth for "Baby Face Nelson" a Depression-era gangster who was in hiding. This was a case where the dentist was more nervous than the patient. Life with my parents was an adventure. I started kindergarten in Berkeley, lived in Guerneville on the Russian River and Hollywood. Once during World War II, when my parents had some racehorses at the Caliente racetrack in Mexico, we lived in the border town of San Ysidro. My sister Jane and I used to ride our horses back and forth across the border into Mexico through a hole in the fence in the dry riverbed. One summer we vacationed above Placerville. My mother liked it, so we moved there in the fall, and I attended Smith Flat Grammar School. It was a three-room schoolhouse where there were 3 classes in one room, and the cow pasture was the baseball diamond. I was in the largest graduating class of the school's history: seven. Moving that fall to Modesto and attending Modesto High was a pure culture shock. After adjusting, things went well. Eventually I made the debate team, became a cheerleader and was accepted into modern dance group. Most important, I met a schoolmate, Preston Hartsell, who was to become my husband. We married in 1954. In 1957 after attending Modesto Junior College, Preston transferred to Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno) bringing his wife and 2 children, our son Gregory and daughter Kimberly. We were able to qualify for public housing in the Hammer Airfield barracks. In Preston's senior year during finals our youngest son Barry was born in the morning of May 17the, 1960, in the old Clovis Sanitarium on Pollasky Avenue (the sanitarium stood behind the statue of Festus). When Preston was out of school we moved farther into Clovis and eventually out to the country in the Dry Creek School area where we still live today. We were involved in 4-H and FFA. All three of our children graduated from Clovis High. They all married and had children. Our daughter Kim was killed in a car accident, that was truly the tragedy of our life. We have four grandsons and one granddaughter (presently 2 great granddaughters and one great grandson). After the children were grown, I applied at Penny's department store for a part time Christmas job and ended up retiring from there years later. While working at Penny's it struck me that it would be a good idea to finish my schooling. I attended Fresno City College and transferred to Fresno State, graduating in 1991 with honors. I received a scholarship and membership to the Fresno Fiber Guild, of which I am still an active member. I enjoy gardening and my chickens. I am still an active member in the Clovis Tennis Club and compete in The Ladies Inner City League. Many years ago my husband and I were active in establishing the Clovis Tennis Club. Preston and I enjoy Clovis Senior Center activities, especially line dancing. The Clovis area has been our home since 1957, and I guess it always will be. __________________________________ The family felt it fitting to briefly update and close this final chapter of her life. It's hard not to embellish on Mom's life.....but What the heck, if not now then when. Mom loved to learn and was an avid reader and her and Dad continued to take classes at CSUF-OSHA. As mentioned in her Bio she graduated from CSUF, but what was left out is, she graduated Summa Cum Laude in Art History at age 56. Many of the continuing classes they studied were in conjunction with trips, domestic and abroad. A trip to Greece was a highlight. Dad was retired from the USDA-ARS and did consulting work that lead to traveling all over the world. Mom and Dad were a love story and they rarely if ever were apart. Tons of wonderful pictures documenting their life from beginning to end. Neat memories. What a marriage....... 66 years. Mom cherished all of us and was a wonderful mother, loving us unconditionally. Mom & Dad worked together in nurturing and teaching us the values and morals they demonstrated consistently. Mom did a wonderful job of preparing us for life. We were always welcome home even when things were difficult. She enjoyed so much of what she did, with vigor and a sense of purpose. She cherished her friends many lifelong, from all over the US. Other pursuits included volunteering for grief and crisis counseling, pursuit and the discovering of her heritage (we are related to John Lennon), her art, playing the piano, being a seamstress and involvement in the Fiber Guild (she was president twice), tennis, the ranch and her animals: cats, dogs and chickens, a dear parakeet and gardening. Oh, how she loved her gourds. She used them for various artwork. Mom started pursuing her spirituality sometime in the early 90's. In the latter years she, with the help of Dad, starting pursuing Christianity. As was her nature Mom committed to understanding and learning about Christ. She was Baptized along with son Barry April 26th 2018 with all family in attendance. That brought a lot of peace to her and the rest of the family as we navigated her decline in health and eventual passing. Mom was a wonderful person. A wonderful mother and wife a very kind and self-confidant woman. She was a beautiful woman that always presented herself well. She was very accomplished at anything she committed to. We are astounded at the calls we have received by those she has touched. Remarkable It's easy to summarize a full life well lived.......and that she did. She will be missed for sure.