Caroll Ann White 1943-2023

Caroll Ann (Manuel) White passed on June 3, 2023 of heart failure. She was born in Cut Bank, MT in 1943 and had just surpassed her 80th birthday. She grew up in the shadow of Glacier National Park, on the western edge of the Great Plains on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, all of which deeply influenced Caroll over her eight decades.

She came home to Browning to parents Randy and Alma (Seekins) Manuel to join her sister Barbara. She grew up in Browning and attended high school in Great Falls. She spent her youth riding horses across the prairie and her first job was working as an operator at the Browning Telephone Company which her parents owned and operated. She graduated Great Falls High School in 1961 and then headed to Northern Montana College, Havre, where she met and married Jim White, a football player from California. They moved back to Browning where Jim went to work at the telephone company, and they welcomed their daughter Christine in 1966.

In 1967 Randy and Alma sold the telephone company to Continental Telephone allowing Jim a promotion and Caroll a move from her beloved Montana to Manteca, California. Caroll was a supportive wife and devoted mother, following Jim through the years as he rose through the telephone industry in Oregon and Washington. During their early years Caroll worked as a substitute and ESL teacher. She also cultivated skills as a craftswoman, leaving behind beautifully crafted needle work of all kinds. Vacations during those years were always to Montana, and when they retired here in 1991 it fulfilled her lifelong quest to return to this Last Best Place which was forever 'home' in her heart. They bought property along the Clearwater River in Seeley Lake where they built then moved into their new home on Christmas Eve 1994.

Caroll and Jim were married just shy of 53 years, and when he passed away in 2016 she began a quieter life. She split and stacked her own firewood, cut her own kindling, and kept a beautiful garden. She was a master quilter creating dozens of large and small designs still adorning the homes of family and friends. In the past year Caroll had several hospital stays so moved to an apartment with a grand view of Missoula to be closer to her daughter and son-in-law. She and her cat Molly made a cozy new home before her heart failed.

We wish to express our deepest appreciation to the first responders who attended Caroll. Profoundly, she was treated by an EMT who was also present in Seeley Lake 7 years ago when Jim died. Over the last year Caroll appreciated a number of devoted health care providers as well as longtime friends she could rely on for both the little and big things (you know who you are).

Caroll is survived by daughter Christine White Deeble (Ben) of Missoula, sister Barbara Galbreath (Kenneth "Sonny"), niece Hollie Galbreath Henkel (George), great nephew Slater Henkel of Browning, and niece Wendy (Galbreath) Weasa of Mesquite, NV. There are a few scattered cousins, as well as her sister-in-law Sue White, and niece and nephew Betsy and Garrett Chambers of California.

A small gathering and memorial will be held in Seeley Lake later this summer.