Cristy Carlson

Cristy Carlson passed away on December 2, 2025 in St George, Utah, after living with cancer for 17 years. She was 63.  

Cristy initially contracted an indolent form of lymphoma in 2008, which transformed last year into a more aggressive form of of the disease. From beginning to end, she navigated her illness with courage and grace.  

Cristy was born in Pontiac, Michigan on November 9, 1962, the youngest of six siblings. Family members affectionately describe her as everyone’s favorite, a girl who spent wonderful summer visits to her aunt and uncle’s home on Otter Lake, swimming, canoeing and water skiing with cousins.  

Cristy earned her BA at the University of Michigan, spending a semester in France, which she often recalled with great delight. A master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University followed, launching her career as a broadcast journalist. Cristy anchored and reported for KRNV-TV and KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada, and for WOIO-TV and WUAB-TV in Cleveland, Ohio. Whether holding politicians to account at the Nevada legislature or jumping out of an airplane to cover high-risk sports in Ohio, Cristy was a fearless and respected journalist.  

Her media savvy and exceptional talent as a writer served her in her second career as an award-winning public relations professional, first at Progressive Insurance and later with Falls Communications in Cleveland.  

Cristy loved being and moving in nature. She found joy skiing in the Sierra, swimming in Lake Tahoe, running, backpacking and playing volleyball in Ohio.  She was proud to have scaled the cables of Yosemite’s Half Dome not once but twice, overcoming gravity and the effects of lymphoma to reach a wilderness vista she would never forget.  

It was during her years in Cleveland that Cristy met Charles Scholl, the man who would become her life’s love and greatest companion. Together, they created a marriage based on mutual respect and shared passions for ideas, exploration and nature. Theirs was a true meeting of hearts and minds.  

They found their way back to her beloved West, settling among the red cliffs of St George. Together they built a home where Cristy loved to sit and watch the everchanging view of mountains and skies. They hiked and biked in Snow Canyon, regularly climbed Shinob Kibe mesa, summited Angel’s Landing in nearby Zion National Park, and took in the bright canopy of stars at Arches. She learned to golf so they could share that pastime, too.  

Those who knew Cristy best describe her as happy, delightful, witty, inquisitive and fearless, a woman of great energy and fine intelligence. 

 Above all, Cristy had a fierce appetite for life. She relished all the love and adventures her life had to offer. Throughout her illness, she never hesitated to pursue the often-difficult treatments that offered a chance at more life and more love. She fully engaged with her treatment team, asking smart questions, weighing choices, and displaying a toughness and bravery that inspired everyone around her.  

Cristy was proceeded in death by her mother Ann Chores and father Russ Carlson, and brothers Cliff Carlson and Mark Carlson.  In addition to her husband Charles, Cristy is survived by sisters Jeannie (Guy) Trautman and Amy Carlson; brothers Matt Carlson and Roger Carlson; aunt Margaret Carpinelli; stepson Thomas (Rachel) Scholl; mother-in-law Sharon Scholl; sisters-in-law Marilyn (Kim) Atwater and Anne Elaine West; cousins Wayne Baumann and Susie Baumann, and many nieces and nephews. 

We will celebrate Cristy’s life in a memorial service on Saturday December 13 via a private online ceremony.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of these causes that mattered to Cristy: St Martin de Porres HS in Cleveland (saintmartincleveland.org) or Blood Cancer United at bloodcancerunited.org (formerly the Leukemia & \Lymphoma Society).