Carole Anne (Smith; Rhoades) Sack

Carole Anne Sack lived a life of true grit, high wit, and glamour galore.

She was born in Denver, CO to a decidedly and beautifully middle-class, devoutly Catholic family in the idyllic Montclair neighborhood. She had two older brothers, Don and Dale, and one younger sister, Roberta. As one of the only little girls in her childhood neighborhood, Carole thrived as a tomboy and grew up playing hard and fast with her big brothers and shared in their lifelong love of sports. Her earliest memories included the shadows of World War II with her family's victory garden, a bulletin board map of the world dotted with colored pushpins marking the Allied troop movements that she listened to each evening on the radio with her parents and big brothers, along with invitations for impeccably uniformed young servicemen from nearby Lowry Air Force Base to join at their home for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners. Carole's family hosted a young Japanese-American woman during the war as a live-in nanny, entirely to spare her from suffering wrongful detention in an internment camp. Carole's parents instilled in her creeds she upheld her entire life: a strong work ethic, loyalty and faith in doing the right thing and being kind and respectful to all, and an abhorrence for any form of prejudice.

Carole attended parochial schools, graduating with the highest academic marks from St. Francis de Sales High School in 1959. That educational background and the influence of numerous fine ceramic and crystal statuettes around the house of Jesus and the Virgin Mary led her to briefly feel during her formative teenage years the calling to become a nun. Her wise father insisted that Carole go to university first. She always excelled academically and was offered a full-ride scholarship to the University of California-Berkeley. Her parents preferred that she stay closer to home, she attended Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, studied Journalism, and joined the Chi Omega sorority. Carole later said that her prior religious fervor waned once she fully flourished in the freedoms of higher education at a public university, including 3.2 beer parties with fraternities, football gamedays, and road trips down to CU's famed Tulagi's.

While at college, Carole met and fell in love with Ralph Francis Rhoades, also of Denver. They married in 1961 and as was customary for many young women of that time, Carole discontinued her university studies to pursue what she always said is the noblest, most challenging, and most rewarding career of all: being a good mother. Carole had two daughters: Cynthia Marie was born in 1963 and Susan Christine in 1965. Carole's marriage to Ralph ended because of his tragic alcoholism. Carole, as a very young mother of two small children, had the courage and strength to realize that saving her children and herself meant divorce something that was socially taboo for all in the mid-1960s and a mortal sin for a practicing Catholic. Nevertheless, she prevailed-with grace, conviction, and strength. She never once played the "victim card" or disparaged her girls' biological father to them; Carole always took the high road reinforcing to her young daughters that they were loved deeply and always. And, she led by example...

Carole pulled herself up by her Big Girl Britches and started working on HER life, as a single working mother. She was Mary Tyler Moore on steroids, but with two young daughters. Shortly after her divorce, Carole was hired part-time to work at Western Airline's Horizon Club in Denver's Stapleton International Airport. Armed with her intrinsically strong work ethic, indefatigable organizational skills, and natural beauty layered with social graces she was quickly promoted by Western Airlines. For over 13 years, Carole was the Manager of Western Airlines's Horizon Club and also supervised the airline's VIP travelers at the Denver Airport. She led a terrific staff who made every passenger feel like they were on Cloud Nine instead of the C Concourse at Stapleton. Carole was strikingly beautiful, so much so that she was mistaken once on a flight for Faye Dunaway in the mid-1970s, when both women were at the height of their respective careers.

Carole LOVED her career, and she made everyone around her at work have fun right along with her. She worked every overtime shift she could, saving enough in just a few years to buy a house in her beloved Montclair neighborhood, start her own investment portfolio of stocks, and put both daughters through college. Oh, and she later literally bought a building as an investment... all, with her own savings.

In 1982, after a fast and fabulous mutual courtship, Carole married the one true love of her life Roger Dean Sack of York, Nebraska. He adopted her then teenaged daughters, and they moved to Nebraska. Having retired from the airline industry, Carole pursued her happily married life and then early retirement with gleeful aplomb. Together for the next 43 years, Carole and Roger celebrated life with great friends in Nebraska and then California where they retired for the winters each year, eventually relocating permanently to greater Palm Springs. They traveled all over Europe, Mexico, and the Caribbean. They played bridge until their knuckles ached from shuffling and golf until age and infirmity precluded their hunt for elusive birdies. Carole chaired the Ladies Nine-Holers group at their club; she hated golf but adored the camaraderie, laughter, and fashion it fostered.

Carole and Roger entertained lavishly and lovingly, hosting charity events and dinner parties at their home seated dinners for up to as many at 50-60 guests for which Carole sent hand-written invitations (not just the envelopes: the actual invitations were each hand-written many times in her own florid, calligraphic twist on Palmer penmanship). She made a wickedly good batch of homemade crab rangoon hors d'oeuvres for dinner parties she threw as effortlessly as Tom Brady threw a football... AND she made a sublime black-bottomed pie from scratch including the crust. She loved fashion and always looked like ten million bucks, with head-to-toe matching accessories and perfectly applied lipstick.

Carole had a prodigious intellect and a voracious curiosity, fed by her insatiable appetite for reading. She subscribed to and read cover-to-cover the morning and evening newspapers (back in the day when those were actually still printed and delivered to one's doorstep). She poured over her investment portfolio statements with gusto. She always had at least one thick book on her nightstand, usually historical fiction. In her bedroom, she had abstract contemporary art installed salon-style with cherished family photos going back to the 19th century and, a framed decorative plaque that read "A Woman without a Man is Like a Fish without a Bicycle".

Of all her laudable traits, Carole will happily be remembered for her rapier sharp wit and sense of humor always Ferrari-fast and often incendiary. She and her Catholic high-school friends referred to a handsome young priest who'd joined St. James Parish as "Father What a Waste". At the Denver Airport during a snowstorm when every flight had been cancelled and she was helping rebook stranded passengers, a bombastic and profane businessman was in line and screamed at her, "Do you know how long I have been in this F-ing line?!?!" to which Carole replied with a genuine smile, "Oh, sir... I am so sorry but you're in the wrong line as we don't provide that service here... next passenger, please!". She was a gold-medalist in shopping, and she was fondly known by name at both Escada and TJ Maxx. Once, when a snobby acquaintance saw her at the Escada boutique and patronizingly said, "Carole Sack! What are YOU doing HERE?", she torpedoed back, "Target was closed". When a massively grouchy department store salesclerk finished ringing up my mother's hefty purchase, my mom patted her hand gently, looked her in the eye and asked, "Does it hurt?"... the surly salesclerk barked back, "Does what hurt?"... my mom genuinely said, "That scowl on your face... it sure looks like it hurts, and it's so much easier to smile instead - you might try it sometime.". Carole once asked Roger, "Do you have a breath mint?" When he said "yes", she shot back, "Use it". She was a life-long smoker until her physician finally won the battle for her to quit; she often said that the only thing she didn't like about smoking was that she couldn't do it during her sleep. Just a couple of weeks before my mother passed away and when ironically Roger had been hospitalized, I came home to Mom and reported to her that he was charming all of the nurses... Mom's closed eyes fluttered open, shot over to me, and she deftly said, "Well, I hope not TOO many of them!".

Carole bravely fought numerous medical challenges and rarely spoke of any of it. She had scoliosis which led to crippling pain and disability in the last years of her life; she kicked breast cancer's arse in her mid-50s; in her late 70s, she had an aortic abdominal aneurysm, a heart attack, blood clots, two hip replacements, and like her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease late in life.

She. Never. Complained.

Carole Anne Sack is survived by her adoring husband, Roger Dean Sack, her two daughters, Cynthia Marie Otte (John Otte); Susan Christine Sack (Yared Yawand-Wossen); stepsons Dean Sack, and Eric Sack (Therese Sack), step-daughter, Valerie Sack Iserman (Ron Iserman), four grandchildren (Jesse Sack, Claire & Bryan Schumacher, Lea & Tom Ruopp, Roger Dean Sack II & Emma Scudder), and four great-granddaughters (Bailey & Adeline Schumacher, Cara Jane & Paige Lydia Ruopp), and her sister, Roberta (Smith) Lloyd. Carole was preceded in death by her parents, Carl T. Smith & Alberta Jean Smith, and by her brothers, Dale Smith and Don Smith.

Her family gratefully acknowledges and thanks the amazing professionalism, care, and compassion given to Carole by Ulle Kassin; the caregivers from A&A Home Care and Caregivers; the Hospice Nurses from Comfort Choice Hospice Care, and Drs. Rafal Kurzawa and Richard Byrd.

A private Celebration of Life in honor of Carole Anne Sack will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers to the family, if so inclined please consider a donation to Planned Parenthood of America, the Alzheimer's Association, or the charity of your choice.