Carol Jean Lyon

Carol Jean Lyon, 85, passed away in Coeur D Alene, ID after a year long decline in health on Friday October 15, 2021. Carol was a life-long resident of northern Minnesota. She was born Sept. 17, 1936 to Roy and Miriam Nelson and grew up in the Hermantown area. During her school years she met Lorry (Shinn) Rannetsberger who was a dear friend until Lorry’s passing in 2016. Carol lived an independent life with a love of travel and the beauty of nature. After graduating from Hermantown High School in 1954, She worked in the resort industry of the north shore and that lead to working at the End of trail resort at the end of the Gunflint trail. There she met her husband Al Lyon who she married in 1959, they raised two children Ginny and Michael. Both Carol and her husband loved the northern Minnesota area and purchased property very near to where they met and built a cabin that the family spent every summer at. Here Carol pursued her passion for berry picking, if it was ripe she picked it and made jams, jellies and pies from her bounty. Carol also was the ultimate host and caretaker, she made sure guests were always well fed and taken care of. If you were a special guest you got a blueberry glazed pie! Her care taking abilities led to working as a home health aid and with encouragement from another lifelong friend Joan Hall, she went back to school and became a LPN, after graduation she accepted a job with St. Mary’s Hospital, now Essentia and worked there until she retired in 2001. In retirement her caretaking skills continued taking care of her husband Al who passed in 2005 and her mother Mariam who passed in 2009. She indulged her love of traveling with trips with her children on many vacations, visited family and friends across the country and traveling with friends overseas to Paris, France. Carol was very independent and in 2013 decided moving further north was a plan and started a new life in Two Harbors, MN. From that location she made many trips to the cabin to tramp in the woods and pick blueberries, visit with friends and stay perpetually busy. She is survived by her children Ginny (Kelly) Montgomery, Mike(Shari) Lyon and her grandsons Josh an Jack Lyon and the many members of the extended family and friends who love her dearly. Her final birthday on Sept. 17 she was with all her family, talkative, took calls from dear friends and had a lovely day that we will remember always. Carol’s wish was to be cremated and her ashes returned to Minnesota to a favorite blueberry patch. The family will have a memorial service at a later date in Minnesota.