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Submitted: 11/30/21 • Approved: 12/7/21 • Last Updated: 12/10/21 • R1403857-G0-S3
July 6, 1949 - February 22, 2011
*Obituary
Benton County Daily Record
Saturday, February 26, 2011
BELLA VISTA — Carole Jean Chapman, of Bella Vista, died peacefully at Mercy Hospital in Rogers, Ark., Feb. 22, 2011. She had lived for the last four years at Ashley Nursing Home.
Carole was born July 6, 1949, in Sioux Falls, S.D., to George W and Mildred (Perryman) Chapman. She attended schools in Linton, N.D., played the tenor saxophone in the band and sang "He Shall Lead His Flock" in regional and state competitions.
Carole eagerly began working at the family business (The Linton Theater and Drive-In) making popcorn and selling soda at the age of 11. She worked in similar venues while attending college in Grand Forks. In 1973, she married Ronald Sholey in Rapid City, S.D. They had been dating since sixth grade.
Unfortunately, weeks after their wedding, Carole was hit by a car white walking her dogs in rural South Dakota. She never walked again, but her creativity and enthusiasm for life shone through the next 40 years. A Rapid City newspaper in 1975 featured Carole working full-time for the Sheriff's office as a dispatcher.
In 1981, Carole and Ron moved from Rapid City to Bella Vista, Ark., joining her parents and several cousins and their families in a migration out of the Dakotas to warmer weather. For a decade, Carole worked as a dispatcher for the Bella Vista Police, getting to know and appreciate the medics, police and firemen she dispatched.
She seemed not to know that other people considered her handicapped. For example, she broke a leg snow-sledding in the late 1980s, and in 1990, she and Ron rode a motorcycle back to the motorcycle festival in Sturgis, S.D.
Until 2007, she gardened in the summer and maintained a healthy forest of plants indoors. She adopted puppies and kittens when the police found them. Throughout her life, her creativity surfaced in a spectrum of crafts, including stuffed animals and beading. Most recently, she had been making paper butterflies and flowers.
Her 20-year marriage to Ronald Sholey ended in divorce. She was preceded in death by her parents; and is survived by her sister, Barbara (Tetsuo Miyabara,) and niece, Jillian; and a bevy of cousins and their families in Bella Vista.
Family and friends will gather at Bella Vista Cemetery on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. to place her ashes and remember her life.
In lieu of flowers, send memorials to the Bella Vista Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 5248, Bella Vista AR 72714: or the Spinal Cord Injury Center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Arrangements are by the Bella Vista Funeral Home and Crematory.
Online condolences may be made at www.funeralmation.com.
Contributed on 11/30/21 by judyfrog
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Record #: 1403857