A Life Lived: Carolyn Honeycutt’s life was defined by love and laughter
Published 11:35 am Tuesday, February 16, 2021
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The Elizabethton STAR family lost two members of its family this past week — Jim Carrier, who worked as a pressman in the 1960s and early ’70s and went on to bigger things, and Carolyn Honeycutt, who formerly worked in the circulation department.
Carolyn, who died February 10, left an imprint on almost everyone she came in contact with.
Someone has said: “A good laugh is sunshine in the house and heals a lot of hurts.” Carolyn liked to laugh, and she was a ray of sunshine.
Judy Guinn, a former co-worker, described Carolyn as a person “full of love and life. If you couldn’t get along with Carolyn, you couldn’t get along with anyone. She loved people and being there for them. Very few things got her down. Carolyn laughed all the time…she looked for the joy in life and appreciated the little things.
“She was my prayer partner, and she always signed her text messages to me ‘My BFF (best friend forever)’” shared Judy.
Although Carolyn only worked at the STAR five or six years, she left her mark. Kathy Scalf, who was Carolyn’s supervisor, said Carolyn was among her best friends. She often came by the STAR to say hi to Kathy and to visit. “She was a very down-to-earth person and was alway there if you needed her. She was good to work with, would do anything you asked her to, and was great with customers. She’d go with me to run paper routes…anything you asked her to do, she was ready and willing,” Kathy said of her friend.
She noted that Carolyn enjoyed sewing and when the coronavirus pandemic came along, Carolyn got out her sewing machine and began making facial masks. She also made cloth covers for bowls for use in the microwave, which she sold at a shop downtown.
Carolyn had also worked as a hairdresser, both before and after her time at the STAR.
“Carolyn was a very talented and a very giving person, who loved her church family at Sunset Free Will Baptist at Roan Mountain. She was faithful to her church until her health began to fail her,” said Kathy.
Carolyn and her husband, Stanley, were the parents of two sons and a deceased daughter.
“Stanley was her life,” said Judy. “She loved her children and grandchildren. But she and Stanley were inseparable. If you saw Carolyn, you knew Stanley was somewhere close by,” Judy shared.
Her husband, Stanley, agreed. “If I just went to the store, she would be there to go with me. We had been married 55 years. She was the love of my life,” he declared.
Stanley described Carolyn as a down-to-earth person, who enjoyed the small things in life. “She enjoyed being outside and going on drives through the mountains. One of her favorite things was to drive up to Wilbur Dam and enjoy a cup of coffee as she watched the geese and other wildlife activity around the water. She also liked to go to Cades Cove. Oftentimes when we were riding around, she would say ‘Guess what we’re doing? We’re making memories,’” Stanley shared.
Now, those memories are comforting to him.
Stanley said Carolyn also enjoyed going to yard sales, family cookouts and holidays with the children and grandchildren. “She wasn’t one for fancy meals; a cookout with hamburgers was her favorite thing,” her husband said.
“Carolyn just enjoyed having fun, being with family and friends, and laughing. She had a lot of health problems the last few years, but she never let them get her down. She was always more concerned about others than herself,” said Stanley.
“This house is so empty without her, and I miss her terribly,” Stanley shared.
But one thing Stanley and her STAR friends know, there is a lot of laughter in Heaven today because Carolyn is there.
Psalms 42:5 says: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him…” That would be Carolyn Honeycutt’s message to those who grieve today.