Carolyn Jean McCray England

Published 1:24 pm Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Carolyn Jean McCray England, daughter of John McCray and Golda King, entered this world on March 4, 1955, in Tazewell Tn, and entered eternity with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 3:02AM in Manchester Ky. Carolyn is preceded in death by her parents, her husband of 40 years, George England, her youngest daughter, Holly, her brother Wayne, and her sister Wanda.

Carolyn graduated from Claiborne County High School in 1973, and graduated from Lincoln Memorial University with degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics. Soon after, Carolyn began teaching mathematics at Claiborne County High School and taught for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2020. Lovingly and respectfully known to her many students as Ms. England, she taught uncompromisingly. Her students earned an A in her classes only by hard work, persistence, and determination. Ms. England’s students learned something far greater than mathematical knowledge, they learned the timeless truth, “you get what you earn”.

Ms. England wanted students to understand and embrace the rewards of hard work more than she wanted them to learn the principles of higher mathematics. She often said “math is a tool for life, but the process of learning math is a tool for success.” No wonder her students respect her and love her, no wonder her students enthusiastically proclaim “Ms. England was my best teacher ever”; this is the reward Carolyn treasured the most.

Carolyn wanted her children and grandchildren to possess visual memories of happy moments so she became a creator of scrap books. Her scrap books are not just a collection of photos pasted on pages, her scrape books are pages of elaborate art, hand drawn highlights, and photos enclosed in the thick hard back covers of leather. She created visual experiences of birthday parties, and thanksgivings, and Christmases, and births, and family vacations, and family board games. Her children and grandchildren all knew by personal experience that no one could beat Nana at Chinese checkers. Carolyn was the master of such card games as ‘rummy’, ‘crazy eights’, ‘phase 10, and ‘canasta’.

Her grandchildren will always remember Thanksgivings and Christmases with Nana. The gifts Nana wrapped and gave to her grandchildren were always thoughtful and generous but they are not what her grandchildren will remember most. Nana spent hours in the kitchen with every grandchild teaching how to make chocolate, pumpkin, and lemon pies, fresh meringue, and homemade hard candy flavored with hot cinnamon, lemon, raspberry, strawberry, and cherry. But Nana’s greatest culinary achievement, at least according to her youngest grandson, is her cranberry relish. Made from sugar, fresh cut cranberries, and gelatin, it will remain the finest dish on the Thanksgiving and Christmas tables.

Carolyn treasured her farm; the farm she was raised on, the farm she raised her own children on, the farm her and George worked together, not as a hobby, but as an essential source of income. Her stories of farm life were layered in the struggles, hardships, and joys of planting tobacco, breeding farm animals, and baking pies, cakes, and candies, and even churning butter to sell.

But on her farm, her one hobby, her one true personal delight, was the company of her dogs. If there existed in Carolyn’s life one indulgence; it was her dogs. Her dachshunds, her mixed breeds, her golden retrievers, and even George’s beagles, lived with Carolyn in the self-made splendor of royalty. No dog had better food, better housing, better veterinarian care, or better love than Carolyn’s.

Carolyn will be missed, but forever remembered, by her one living child, Angel, by her favorite, and only, son-in law, Dana, by her grandchildren, Reece England, Alex Edwards, Hayley Edwards, Blaise Edwards, Darci Edwards, Keeley Edwards, Emma Edwards, and Kingsley Edwards, and by her niece Missy Hamby, her nephew Kevin Fultz, her nephew Steven Fultz, great nieces and nephews, many friends, church members, former high school teaching colleagues , former principals and superintendents, and by her hundreds, if not thousands, of former students.

Carolyn’s body will rest next to her husband and her daughter. But her soul is dancing and rejoicing and praising her Savior, Jesus Christ, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever in a paradise free from cancer, and sorrow, and sadness, and pain.