Carolyn Ann Schornak

URBANA – Carolyn Ann (Lieb) Schornak, 90, of Urbana, passed into the loving arms of her Heavenly Father on Jan. 27, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio.

Born in Columbus on January 20, 1933, she was the youngest of 11 children. After graduating from Holy Rosary High School, she married Richard Schornak in 1951. The couple resided in Columbus where they started their family. In 1960 they relocated to Urbana, where they went on to raise their six daughters.

Carolyn took great joy in her role as a mother, making sacrifices to provide all her daughters a Catholic education and instilling in them the importance of family. Her dedicated, selfless example inspired her daughters to become caring wives and mothers in due course as well. With the birth of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Carolyn relished her role as matriarch, hosting decades of Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, instigating spirited family card games, and ensuring all birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and deaths were commemorated.

She was for many years an industrious and highly successful Avon Representative, regularly earning the Avon President's Club Annual Albee Award. Carolyn was also an active member of her community: giving sewing lessons as a 4-H Leader while raising her daughters, serving as a local poll worker in her later years, and enthusiastically participating in a local coffee klatch that met regularly at McDonald's. She was a gifted painter and baker, and her dress-making skills earned her an award in the Champaign County Homemakers Style Show sewing competition. She was an avid collector of elephant figurines and teapots, and she could fix or repurpose just about anything.

Carolyn loved the outdoors, water, and swimming. Whether spending summers with extended family at Buckeye Lake, vacationing at the beach in Florida, or enjoying a hotel pool, she lived up to her childhood nickname "Minnow."

A longtime parishioner of St. Mary Catholic Church in Urbana, she served for many years as a member of the Ladies Altar Society. Carolyn held a special devotion to the Blessed Mother and made an annual pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey. She and Richard visited the Vatican and the holy pilgrimage site at Medjugorje in Bosnia, two highlights attesting to both her lifelong love of travel and her deeply held faith in God.

Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents Carl and Clara Lieb; siblings Charles (Edith Louise), Marie (Walter), Robert (Agnes), George (Ruth), William, Wilbur, Joseph (Rose Ann), Clara (Clifford), Richard, and James; and beloved daughter Victoria (Scott) Kendell.

She is survived by her loving spouse of 71 years, Richard Schornak; daughters Mary (Lawrence) Bassick, Christine (David) Raven, Virginia (William) Bornschein, Joann (Andrew) Felczan, and Elizabeth (William) White; grandchildren Adam (Amy), Rachel (Dean), Megan, Carina (Nicholas), Amanda (Paul), Joshua, Anne (Evan), Stephen, Emma, Alexander (Alaina), Bridget, Nicholas, and Liam; six great-grandchildren; sister-in-law Charlene Lieb; and many nieces and nephews.

The family will receive visitors at VERNON FUNERAL HOME, 235 Miami Street, in Urbana, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, from 4 to 7 p.m. A community gathering beginning at noon on Thursday, Feb. 2, will take place at the Chapel of St. Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, with a funeral Mass led by Fr. Michael Watson following at 1 p.m.

Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.vernonfh.com.