Carolyn Marie Penny Wilken

Carolyn Marie Penny Wilken
Carolyn was born September fifth, 1937 in Liberal, Kansas to Gordon and Louise Penny (Wilson) who were residents of Garden City, Kansas for many years before their retirement. She was baptized on March 29, 1942 and began her life in Jesus Christ’s loving care.

Carolyn attended schools in Garden City and was active in dance and music programs which included junior and senior high school orchestra where she was the lead cello instrumentalist and the cellist in the faculty-student string quartet. She was also active in debate and speech competitions. During that time she also performed as a student at the University of Kansas summer camp music programs. It was during her junior year that she became a steady partner of her future husband, Marvin Wilken, who was a senior in high school. They were engaged in the latter part of her senior year when he was a freshman at the University of Kansas. She attended the University of Kansas following high school as music major on a scholarship with a focus on cello performance. Carolyn and Marvin were married on June 16, 1956 in Garden City. They lived in small house Marvin’s family farm for that summer and they both returned to University of Kansas and attended school for the next year. After that year she decided to take a job working at a credit bureau while Marvin finished his degree in engineering while working part time.

When Marvin finished his degree in January of 1959 they moved to Dallas, Texas where Marvin was employed by Texas Instruments. They had to set up house-keeping very quickly as Carolyn was pregnant with the first child and she gave birth on March 28 to a son Kirk. He was to be the first of five sons with Mark (June 21, 1960), twins Todd and Eric (May 20, 1964) and Josh (January 29, 1974) to follow. They attended Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at that time where Pastor Burandt gave Carolyn personal catechism instruction during her pregnancy at their duplex home near Love Field and they both became members.

In the summer of 1961 Marvin was offered an assignment to work in support of Honeywell in Florida for one year. When he asked Carolyn if she would like to go her reply was “When do we leave?” so they (now two boys) moved to Clearwater for that year and enjoyed making new friends, bowling and going to the beach. They lived in a duplex where the next door neighbor was a pastor on his vicarage with his wife and young boy that made for a long term friendship and an introduction to the local Lutheran church. They were able to host both Marvin and Carolyn’s parents for a visit and enjoyed giving them the tourist tour for people from western Kansas during that time. They moved back to Dallas in the summer of 1962 and lived in an apartment while looking for a new house in north Dallas. They found a development where they had their base home for the next 40 plus years in 1963 and soon after joined Holy Cross congregation. In 1964 the twins were born and immediately became the object of attention for the two older brothers and great extra hands and feet for Momma Carolyn who was clearly demonstrating the ability for organization and steady calm in the taking care of four young boys and a busy husband.
In summer of 1966 Marvin again received an offer for year-long assignment in Pasadena, California. Again the answer was “When do we go?” So off they went, renting out the house, finding a large apartment in La Cresenta, and getting the two older boys ready for California schools after being in school at Holy Cross School. They were there with other TI employees that were working a current Mars mission so they had some help in getting together with friends but also made friends with many others in the apartment complex. They attended a local Lutheran church. Even though there were good friends and some interesting adventures when the older boys were in Indian Guides and the younger boys in swimming lessons, the load on Carolyn taking care of the four children wore her down a little during this time but she hung in there even though she did sleep through an earthquake one evening after the boys were in bed. She was anxious to get back to her house with a yard in Texas and did declare once near the end of the year assignment that “California is not a state but a state of mind”.

Carolyn was very disappointed when the family returned to Dallas in the summer of 1967 as the tenets had been rough on the house but she just called a good friend to help and the two of them repainted before the damaged carpeting was replaced. She felt a lot better after the furniture in storage was back in place. She had always insisted that wherever we lived was in better shape when we left than when we had arrived.

There were many tests of the toughness and resiliency of both Carolyn and Marvin in the years that followed as after Josh was born (1974) at the surprise and eventual delight of the whole family. When you have two teenagers and two adolescents in addition to a toddler it can get a little tense at times and you can really spread thin. During those years Josh became the glue for the family as they could all agree that he was worth any effort to pull together.

In 1979 Marvin was involved with a military program that demanded his time during field testing of a vehicle and fire control system at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland and Fort Knox in Kentucky. It meant being on-site for at least a week at time with only sporadic weekends at home for a year. Carolyn had to deal with all of the at home problems while also being the administrative “secretary” for the start-up Lutheran High School of Dallas. It was during this time that Marvin learned how really tough yet kind and resourceful Carolyn could be. He told her more than once that she was indeed a real “keeper” and tried to make the weekends her time to relax. Both were glad when that true “testing” effort was over and the program was a success along with the family.
It is interesting to note that the work for LHS was also an opportunity for the boys to learn some real life lessons from Carolyn that she did not realize would be important to their life. Josh, for example, when he was young noted that she not only was handling her administrative duties but worked to learn accounting so that she could pick up that extra load because LHS could not afford an extra staff person for that task. His lesson was to stretch oneself, not because of some promise of personal gain, but because you care about the purpose of what you are doing and it potential to impact lives.

There were other important influences that she had on her children through the years by her examples of her unwavering faith in God’s will, grace and the power of prayer. They became aware of her praying for them constantly for both the large and small encounters in their lives. Her love for music was very apparent as she would encourage, sometimes strongly, exploring and enjoying music in their lives. She is also was the one to start the practice of holding hands during the prayers around the table. We used to joke was that it was to avoid incidental “hitting” at that time but it was a lot more than that. It was family. Church was the center of the week, every week to remind each of them of what God does there to feed us.

She does sound like a natural mother but you must understand that earlier in her life when she was called on to help with her younger siblings she was heard to tell someone that she was never going to get married but if she did she would not have children but if she did it would only be girls. God really had some surprises coming up for her.

This was a summary of the first 25 years of marriage that has been followed by another 35 years that also had their testing and trials but God has been very good to Carolyn and her family. She particularly loved the time in England (six months) in 1999 when Marvin had duty working with the “UK” portion of a US/UK consortium. One more place to develop new friends and share some time with them when they came to visit the US. Marvin and Carolyn agreed that they would use this opportunity just like all of the moves before. They would not become tourists but neighbors and really get to know the people around them. Carolyn had a wonderful time and became close to a few that ladies and shared family time together. Even the small church that they attended in the village where they lived became important. On the last Sunday before going back to the “States” the Vicar gave them some mementoes and announced that they had been one of the most faithful attendees of services.

The move to far north Fort Worth about 10 years ago and membership with Messiah Lutheran friends were made even more special when it was near four of the grandchildren while they were here until 2 years ago and moved to western New York. Carolyn enjoyed being part of their lives by attending piano, dance, soccer, baseball, and school events and the occasional opportunity to “baby sit” to give their parents a night out.
There have been the marriages of four of the boys starting in 1980 to wonderful young women whom Carolyn always considered the daughters she did not have but has loved just as if they were. Marvin and Carolyn have six beautiful grandchildren (three boys and three girls) and one great-grandson. One of the greatest joys for Carolyn was to have all of the family together for the “Christmas at Thanksgiving” and enjoy the laughter and merriment of the five boys and the whole family.

Carolyn had many interests that she did not make well known such as providing quilts to all of her sons and grandchildren and new-born blankets to many first time parents (and beyond in several cases), dozens of slippers for the Pink Slipper efforts, many cross-stitch works, bell choirs, choirs, square dancing and dancing with her dancing-impaired husband, Braille projects, telling anyone that would listen about her grandchildren with pictures, reading of historical fiction or English history, Bible studies, Portals of Prayer, trying out new recipes, KU basketball, napping while watching golf on TV, classical music, Dave Brubeck Jazz, Issues Etc. and English mysteries and drama.

Carolyn has voiced many times her real joy in her recent hospital and re-hab stays for the many cards, notes, email and Facebook prayers and well wishes for her health and for the wonderful turn-out for her and Marvin’s 60th wedding anniversary. She told Marvin before her bypass surgery that she was not nervous about the outcome of the surgery and said “I am not nervous because I know that when I awake from the surgery that I will be talking to God or you and both are good”. The family prays that all that read this can know that same assurance about what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus for us all.

Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers; Jack and Ellis (Don). She is survived by her husband Marvin; children, Kirk, Mark, Todd, Eric and Josh; grandchildren, Emma Hosfeld (Michael), Solomon Wilken, Carter Wilken, Aidan Wilken, Patrick Wilken, Ellis Wilken; great grandson, Quinn Otto Hosfeld; brother, Gordon M. Penny of Lawrence, Kansas; sisters, Kath Cline (Gary) of Lakeland, Florida and Mary Walker of Phoenix; aunt Leona ”Dude” Mulligan of Topeka, Kansas and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews and scores of friends.

A celebration of her life will be at 4:00 p.m., Monday, August 22, 2016 at the Messiah Lutheran Church in Keller.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests Carolyn Penny memorials to all or any of Lutheran High School of Dallas or Messiah Lutheran Academy for scholarships for worthy applicants or the Swaddling Clothes program of Messiah Lutheran Church


Lucas Funeral Home - Keller (817) 753-6800