Carolyn Pretzer, 1931-2009
Carolyn Ann (Barndt) Pretzer, 78, of Manhattan, died at Stoneybrook Retirement Community Friday, October 3, 2009, after a courageous battle with lung cancer.
She was born and raised in Garnett, where she graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. She attended Kansas University in Lawrence on a scholarship and later transferred to Kansas State University in Manhattan, where she received a bachelor of science degree in home economics and teaching in May of 1954.
She was married while attending Kansas State University, and after both she and her husband graduated she moved with him to several Air Force bases while raising their three children. They lived in southeast Kansas, including for several years in Garnett and then in Columbia, Missouri, before returning to Manhattan where the three children graduated from high school and where she remained until her death.
Carolyn was employed in 1977 as the curator of the emerging audiovisual aids collection of what was then the K-State College of Architecture and Design. Upon her retirement from K-State, she was named director-emeritus of the Krider Center. She was recognized in May of 1998 for 20 years of dedicated service to the K-State College of Architecture, Planning and Design.
Carolyn was a long-time member of First United Methodist Church in Manhattan and previously the First United Methodist Church in Garnett.
She is survived by her daughters ,Janis Thomas and husband Kelly of Yukon, Oklahoma, and Denise Pretzer of Webster Groves, Missouri, and her son, Mark Pretzer, of Manhattan. She has five grandchildren, whom she adored above all else: Stephen Pretzer, Jeremy Meyer, Cassandra Pretzer, Jennifer Thomas and William Patton. She also leaves behind beloved cousins and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Clarence and Florence Barndt, and a brother, Robert (Bobby) Barndt of Garnett.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, October 10, at the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. Services will also be held in Garnett at the Feuerborn Funeral Chapel with internment following in the Garnett Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7 until 8 p.m. Friday at the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be left for the family through the funeral home website at www.ymlfuneralhome.com
Memorial contributions may be given to Homecare and Hospice Inc. of Manhattan or the Terry C Johnson Center for Basic Cancer Research. Contributions may be left in care of the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home, 1616 Poyntz Ave, Manhattan KS 66502.