Carol, daughter of Bill and Mildred (Schroepfer) Groebner, was born on Nov 18, 1946 and attended the District 28 Albin Township (Little Red) Schoolhouse, then Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s schools with a brief stint at the Assisi Heights convent (Rochester MN). She waitressed and cooked at the Schultz Cafe and the Delroy. She married Ellsworth Dobberstein on June 1, 1976 and divorced five years later, then moved to Willmar, MN. In Willmar, she held various jobs (home health care, retail positions) and worked as an office assistant to an insurance agent. She earned her Associate’s degree at Willmar Community College (now Ridgewater College) in psychology where she then also tutored. She met the love of her life, Murphy Jennings (via eHarmony) and moved to Pequot Lakes, MN, eventually following him to Dawsonville, Georgia in 2010. Carol continued work in various retail jobs and also increasingly as a caretaker and driver (taking others to appointments) in all the places she lived.

Carol was very artistic in her early years, studying calligraphy, drawing and painting. She used these skills to create materials for Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s and a few commissioned portraits for friends and family. She was an excellent cook and seamstress. In 1981 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) after an attack that disabled her right side. She worked hard to regain mobility and function. She loved singing and music; in Willmar, she was part of a singing group that entertained at local nursing homes and events. As her MS disease progressed, she became very active in the online and in-person support communities and was an excellent group leader, trainer and advocate. She was also active in her church communities throughout her life with Grace Presbyterian in Dawnsonville as her final congregation.

Carol loved her series of Saturn cars and the road trips she took with them (often to hear country music, and almost always with or visiting friends or family). She enjoyed traveling, including several trips to St. Petersburg, Russia to visit close friendships made in online MS communities. She learned to speak Russian and developed a lifelong love of Russian food and culture. She battled thyroid cancer in 2013 and many complications from MS over her lifetime before succumbing to its complications. She cared lovingly for her fiancé Murphy through his illnesses and eventual death (in January 2016).

Carol is survived by her dog Rusty, her brothers Jim (of Wickenburg, AZ), Chuck (of Sleepy Eye, MN) and her sister Mary (of Olympia, WA), four nieces and nephews, six great nieces and nephews, many cousins and friends, most notably Ida Mae Richardson who has cared for Rusty after Carol entered nursing home care in 2020.

She was preceded in death by her parents Bill and Mildred, her brother Robert, her ex-husband Ellsworth and her fiancé Murphy.

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]