Carrol Lindsay was born May 17, 1944 to Warren and Erma (Marchant) Lindsay and was the youngest of 8 children. She weighed 5 lbs 4 oz. and entered this world in humble fashion, being housed in a dresser drawer at the hospital because they had no more beds for her in the nursery.
Carrol was raised on a farm in Lovell, Wyoming and enjoyed playing with the animals. She always had a dog or a cat or a horse and riding horses was her favorite thing to do. She played a lot with the next door neighbor boy (Freddy Hettinger) and his brother (Ronnie) who was born 9 days ahead of her. She was quite a tomboy as there were not any girls to play with. In the summer they rode horses and climbed trees and swam in the river. During the winter they would ice skate when it was possible.
Lovell was a small town of about 2,500 people and most of them were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (including many of her family members). They rarely visited with anyone nor were visited by others. Her father did farm work most of his life and he was gone most of the time, either taking care of the fields or the sheep. Occasionally she would get to go with him down to the field and watch him walking down the ditches making dams as he irrigated the beets. She loved to do this because she would get to drive the old Jeep he used to do his work. (Maybe that had something to do with the Jeep that Ted/Brad used to drive – and also with marrying Don because he had a Jeep).
Carrol attended school in Lovell and Greybull (about 20 miles South of Lovell) and at age 8 decided to join the LDS church. She was baptized on Feb 1, 1953. It was tough to be a member of the church as most of her family was inactive. Her mother told her that she turned her kids over to the Lord to take care of when she realized she couldn’t do it.
At age 13 her father passed away, needlessly, from diabetes simply because he refused to receive medical attention. After her fathers passing, Carrol spent much time in the care of her sister Louise who lived in Greybull. They also had a small cabin in the mountains which was an enjoyable retreat where she could ride horses, fish and enjoy nature.
A few years later, Carrol started working as a waitress in a local café. She loved being really busy and also tried cooking which was fun. Carrol tried other jobs as well. She worked as a clerk in the photo store, and as a secretary for the Boy Scouts in Salt Lake City, but she liked the restaurant best. Carrol and her sisters, Myrna and Gae, moved around and lived in many places; Minneapolis, MN, San Antonio, TX, San Diego, CA and Salt Lake City, UT, and then eventually moved up to Billings, MT. Traveling and seeing new places was a favorite thing to do.
One day Myrna and Carrol walked into the Western Café by the old stockyards in Billings looking for work. Donald happened to be there and asked the boss, “who are those ladies?” The boss said they were a couple of gals from Wyoming that were in looking for work. At the time, Carrol was working at a photo shop in Billings and a little bit later Donald went over to visit and tease her at the photo store. When Don and Gary Bender would see them at the restaurant, they would just go sit down by Carrol and Myrna and make them nervous. This of course turned into a more common occurrence and eventually led to the next step. On June 1, 1966, Carrol married Donald DeWayne Tronson at the LDS chapel in Billings.
About a month after getting married, Don wanted to have his clothes ironed with a crease in it, so Carrol went out and bought an ironing board. Of course he had to put his foot down and not let finances get out of hand, so there ensued the first debate on how to spend money. Don (or “Brownie” as Myrna and Carrol liked to call him because of the color of the semi-truck he was currently driving) was driving truck for George Marcenko and later Midland Feed and Garret Freight Lines and making pretty good money.
In March of 1967 Carrol found out that they were going to have a baby. So they went to the doctor and found that they were really going to have twins. Shortly before the twins were born, Don and Carrol purchased a 10 acre farm on 56th Street, West of Billings. They raised pigs, sheep and calves and had a garden every year with raspberries, corn and fresh tomatoes. Donnie’s mom used to like to come down and help plant the garden.
On November 19, 1967 Carrol gave birth to twin boys. Don took the whole day off from driving truck that day. Ted was first at 6 lbs. 6 oz, followed by Brad at 6 lbs. 13 oz. She was full term to the day (keep in mind that mom was 5’2” and that that was a lot of baby weight). Four years later on the same day, Carrol gave birth to Janice. She did a fine job of planning to keep all of the birthdays on the same day.
Don’s father passed away in 1972 and at that time Don and Carrol decided to move to Medicine Lake to begin working the farm. They built a new house in 1973 and then completed the family in 1974 with the addition of a baby girl, Wendy, on June 13. Wendy was the only child with a different birthday and so this meant that Wendy got to have 2 birthdays every year, much to the dismay of the other children.
In Medicine Lake, Don and Carrol continued to raise animals and started to raise grain in the fields. The family had lots of fun taking care of the animals and soon were raising animals as projects in 4-H, for the Rough Riders 4-H club of which Carrol was the organizational leader. Carrol kept very busy with the children and also served as the Band Mothers President, chaperoned many band trips, helped with the Boy Scouts, and went to sporting events of all kinds to watch the kids participate. Carrol loved to hear her children sing, play instruments, and play sports.
Carrol was even excited to make an obstacle course one year. So we all dug a big mud pit in the garden and filled it with water, hauled in wire spools to try to run on, and other stuff so all the kids could have a good time.
Carrol was an active member of the LDS Church and loved to read and ponder the scriptures. She was instrumental in teaching her family good Christian values and served her church well as a Relief Society President and Sunday School Teacher and any other duties that were asked of her.
On August 23, 1997 Carrol was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. This was the scariest thing that had ever happened to her and she figured that death was at her doorstep. She began preparing wills and doing other things to “get her life in order”. The first week of October she was in Salt Lake having surgery, then chemo-therapy and later, a stem cell transplant.
During the period following the surgery and transplant the family was very supportive and Carrol and Don were able to see the kids and grandkids on a regular basis and the family became very close. It was at this point in time that Brad, Janice, and Wendy went into full production on getting a family started so that Carrol would have a bunch of grandkids. Ted was already going strong and had 3 children by now.
The stem cell transplant worked well for a time, but in November of 1999 she had more surgery to remove additional cancer spots. On March 8, 2000, Carrol’s best friend and mother-in-law (Grandma Lu Tronson) passed away. It took two years for Carrol and Don to quit thinking of stopping at the house to visit.
Over the next few years the number of grandchildren grew from 3 to 11 and Carrol and Don decided it was time to do some traveling with the family (or shall we say Carrol mostly – but we know Don enjoyed it once he got there). Many family trips were planned and taken to include: Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Steam Boat Springs, Colorado; New England area; Acapulco, Mexico; Big Sky, Bozeman, Montana; Cancun, Mexico; Washington, D.C. area; Columbia Falls, MT, Puerto Villarta and other locations.
Carrol never slowed down though, she helped to organize the Sheridan County Daybreakers Genealogy Club and spent many hours working on cemetery records and running back and forth to the recorders office and library to make sure that the names, dates, and information were all correct and would be available on the website. She also assisted in the making of the Daybreak III by gathering information for stories and editing them and was very proud of the book.
Carrol joined up with the Senior Citizens Club in Medicine Lake and became the youngest secretary ever. She loved going to the meetings and would try to schedule trips to Utah so she could be back in time for them. She loved the company and had lots of fun at the meetings.
Just when we had all decided she was going to be a cancer survivor, we got the news in September 2007 that the cancer was back and had moved into her bones and other places.
She fought with everything she had and endured a whole lot more than any of us will ever know. She passed away on May 29, 2009 at the Sheridan Memorial Hospital. Don and her two daughters were holding her hands when she passed.
Carrol was a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend and always brought a hopeful spirit to those around her. She had an endless supply of energy and always had a list of things to accomplish every day. It was a joke in our family that she was a real “slavedriver.” She was the center of our family and will be greatly missed.
