Lillian Kay Carl

Lillian Kay Carl, mother and friend to many, died Wednesday after a long battle with lung and heart disease and cancer. She was 80 years old. 

Ms. Carl was born on Nov. 15, 1943, in Duluth, Kansas, the second child of Iverna and Ben Teske. She graduated from high school in 1961. It was her dream to be a flight attendant, so she went to Kansas City, Mo., to attend the Weaver Airline Personnel School.

After receiving a job offer from Frontier Airlines, she moved to Denver, where she eventually got a job as a flight attendant with Continental Airlines. One of her favorite flights was working on the plane carrying the Denver Broncos to football games.

In 1967, she married Robert Carl in Duluth. The young couple lived in Wichita, St. Louis and Des Moines, Iowa, before moving to Lawrence, Kansas, where they ran the Kwik Shop convenience store on 23rd street for many years. 

Ms. Carl gave birth to two daughters, Traci in 1972 and Tonya in 1977. She and Mr. Carl divorced in 1984. 

She worked many jobs over the years, including helping students with housing at the University of Kansas and serving as a telephone operator for the deaf with AT&T in Lawrence. She was active at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lawrence, Kansas, and loved playing cards with her family and friends. 

Ms. Carl was always very grateful to all her doctors who helped her mend a heart scarred by rheumatic fever as a child; beat back lung cancer, at least temporarily; and live with COPD. Their efforts allowed her to meet her five grandchildren and see two graduate from high school.

It was her last wish to help future doctors continue to extend the lives of others, so she decided five years ago to donate her body after death to the University of Kansas Medical Center. 

She is survived by her siblings, Carole Schwarz, Gary Teske, Harlan Teske and Sherry Rengstorf; her daughters and their husbands, Tonya and Eric Mater, and Traci Carl and Jorge Melchor; her grandchildren, Lucinda, Sydney and Matilda Mater; and Elly and Kyra Melchor. She was preceded in death by her mother, father, and a stillborn son, Mark Carl. 

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lawrence. Burial will be at the cemetery in Duluth at a future date still to be determined. 

Memorial contributions may be made in Lillian’s name to the American Lung Association and may be sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th Street, Lawrence, KS 66044.