Clarence Ollis Carraway

Clarence Ollis Carraway, of Kosse, passed away at Groesbeck LTC on Friday, December 17, 2021, at age 89.

Graveside services will be held at Plantersville Cemetery at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 22, 2021, with services officiated by David Knight, Elders Quorum President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.   Also, Clarence’s brother-in-law, Roy Terrell and Clarence’s brother, Cleon Carraway will be speaking.

Pallbearers will be Roy Terrell, Reuben Terrell and Wayne Terrell.

Clarence was born on December 31, 1931, to Ollis John Carraway and Susie (Johnson) Carraway in Plantersville in Grimes County.   He grew up in Shelton before the family moved to Pelly near Baytown.  He graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, where he had been a champion wrestler.

After he graduated, he began serving his two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and then due to the Korean War, he enlisted in the     U. S. Army and was trained to be an instructor.  He was shipped to Korea the day after the armistice was signed to end the conflict, although there was still heavy activity while he was in Korea.

After he was honorably discharged in 1952, he attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he majored in business administration, and also studied ballroom dancing and led an active dating life.

Clarence found out being a shoe salesman was not for him, so after he married and was living in Pasadena, he changed careers to working for several different aluminum distributers as an outside contractor.  He traveled all over the southeast - Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Arizona – installing siding and patios.  He took local jobs, when he could, as a private contractor doing roofing, so he could spend more time at home.

Clarence later went to work for the U. S. Post Office as a mail carrier in Pasadena and primarily south Houston and endured a few serious dog bites on the job.  He retired from the U.S.P.S. after 16 years.

While still working in Houston, he and his wife Sylvia began building a home in Kosse, where they moved when he retired.  He was a hunter and marksman, who could shoot the eye out of a deer or rabbit.   However, he relinquished the hunting after he began raising an orphan deer from a baby, which led to thirty or more deer, as well as racoons, squirrels, and birds, coming to his home every day and night to be fed.  This finally became too high of an economic burden to continue.

He was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, attending in Mexia where he and Sylvia were temple workers in the Dallas Temple.   Clarence was a big-time “Scriptorian.”  He was a prolific reader of the scriptures, even up to a few days ago in the nursing home and could retain his knowledge of the scriptures until his memory began failing about six years ago from the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.  Clarence has resided in the nursing home during the last six years.   

Clarence was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of the past thirty-plus years, Sylvia Anne Carraway in 2019; his infant sister, Thelma Lucille and sisters, Lillie Shurtz and Vivian Clegg; and two brothers-in-law, Doc Leash and Kenneth Shurtz.

He is survived by his daughter, Kimberly Carraway of Pasadena; stepdaughters, Debra Preston and Janis Wilson and their husbands and children; sister, Velma Carraway Leash and her children; brother and sister-in-law, Cleon and Margaret Carraway of Baytown and their children; sister and brother-in-law, Glenda and Roy Terrell and their sons, Reuben and Wayne of Kosse; and other extended family.