Obituary of Carolyn A. Shaver

Carolyn Shaver was called to her heavenly home on May 13, 2023.

Carolyn was born September 14, 1935, in Charleston, WV, the first child of Maxine and Dana Shaver. The family were active members of the Calvary Baptist church in Charleston where she participated in the church’s various youth activities. She attended Alderson Broaddus College, a small Baptist college located in Philippi, West Virginia. There she was involved in many programs and activities, including the Student Christian Fellowship, the student Senate, a class office, and the Nurses’ Chorus. She was also yearbook art editor, a varsity cheerleader, and a Homecoming queen.

Graduating in 1959, she was the first Alderson Broaddus student to graduate cum laude with two major fields of study: Nursing and Christian Education. After graduation she entered the Miss Central West Virginia Pageant, a preliminary event in the Miss West Virginia and Miss America Pageants, capturing the title of Rhododendron Queen for 1960 (the rhododendron is the West Virginia state flower).

She began her nursing career at the local hospital in Philippi and then at Charleston’s Memorial Hospital. However, she soon realized that she was struggling with an enemy that would haunt her throughout her entire adult life, depression. Through a family friend, Carolyn met a clinical psychologist from Texas who encouraged her to consider becoming associated with Houston’s Church of the Redeemer, where he felt she could receive support and encouragement in her mental and emotional struggles. She soon joined the Redeemer family, ultimately participating in their household ministries, liturgical dance group and flag ministries, choir, and the church’s first medical missionary trip to Mexico.   

Carolyn resumed her professional nursing career by joining world renowned oncologist, Dr. John Stehlin at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Houston as his lead surgical nurse. She subsequently left hospital nursing to become a school nurse at several Houston Independent School District’s intercity grade schools. While serving at Berry Elementary School she was awarded the HISD Nurse of the Year for 1993-94.

Carolyn retired from school nursing in 2016 but never retired from her commitment to reach out to friends, family, neighbors, and, while able, her fellow Brasewood Estates residents in intercessory prayer. She truly was a Prayer Warrior. Carolyn is survived by her siblings, James Shaver and Martha Spee, both of Aiken, S.C.