Billy Lee Carrell

Billy Lee Carrell passed away Monday, October 27th following a very brief illness in Leawood, KS.

Bill was born in 1941, in Bartlesville, OK to Lorene and Billy Carrell. Their family moved to the Kansas City area during his childhood, and he attended Shawnee Mission High school back when it was the only one. He began his college years at Baker University studying Accounting and Finance and then finished in a program of Business Management at UMKC. After graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He met his beautiful wife, Marilyn Fronabarger, in 1968 and they were joined in marriage in 1969. They had one son, Brad Carrell, in 1974 and a daughter Regina, who passed away a few days after birth, five years later. Bill started out working as an accountant and eventually made use of his carpentry skills by joining Local Laborer’s Union 1290 in 1985 and working in construction. When he retired in 2002, he said that his goals were:

1) Learn to relax

2) Become master of all trades on owning a home and living with a wife.

3) Belong to numerous organizations and volunteer my time.

4) Volunteering my time to activities that I felt were important.

Bill learned his love of fishing and hunting from his father and loved to take his young family on camping weekends and to bible camp in Colorado.

Bill and Marilyn loved to travel and would go on vacations in places like Florida, Las Vegas, and Alaska as well as visiting relatives/attending reunions in other states. Bill became a member of Arab Shriners out of Topeka, KS and was also a member of the Kansas Freemasons, Shawnee Lodge #54. He loved reading mysteries and listening to classical music. Marilyn and Bill were long time members of the Koinonia Sunday School class at Country Club Christian Church. They treasured the friendships they found there.

Bill was preceded in death by his mother and father and his wife Marilyn and their daughter Regina.

Bill leaves behind his son Brad (Jill) Carrell, his brother Robert (Wanda) Carrell, his grandsons Cooper and Chase Carrell, and his niece Emily (Troy) Pickett and their children and his nephew Matt (Anna) Carrell and their daughter. We would like to also acknowledge his special friend Ellen Tipper, who made his last month's so special.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the ALS foundation to help fight the cruel disease that took his wife from this earth way too soon. Memorial contributions: ALS Fundraiser.