Carolyn Lea Hausen

Carolyn Lea Hausen was born March 25, 1932 to Charles and Marie (Loy) Shepherd in Thayer, Iowa and passed away on Easter, April 17, 2022 at her residence in Cortez, Colorado surrounded by family. She proudly met her goal of living to celebrate her 90th birthday.
Carolyn grew up in various towns in Iowa but spent the latter years of her childhood in Villisca. She learned to play the piano when she was seven years old and enjoyed participating in various instrumental and choral groups during her school years. She met her husband, Roger Charles Hausen, while working in his stepfather’s drugstore as a soda jerk. They married on September 8, 1950 in Villisca, Iowa.
The couple moved to Virginia when Roger was drafted into the United States Army for a two-year term. After Roger’s departure to serve in France, Carolyn gave birth to their first son, Roger Jr., in 1951, and moved back with her parents and her six siblings. Shortly after Roger was discharged from the army, while working and living in icy South Dakota, the family of three, and one on the way, decided to move to a warmer climate, California. Michael Steven was born in 1953 and Susan Kay was born in 1957.
Carolyn was a caring wife and mother. She was an excellent cook and made every holiday a beautiful banquet. She continued to play the piano and organ and sing in various choral groups and churches. In 1967 she went to work at Glen A. Wilson High School as the pianist for the vocal and instrumental departments for 11 years. She loved her job and enjoyed accompanying the many musicals the kids performed. In 1978 she had to leave unhappily with a disability retirement due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, which is a rare, inherited degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment.
Throughout her life she showed great strength and courage, both with her failing eyesight and in her later years with many various cancers. She never complained, never talked about it, and always cared about others before herself. She always dressed to the nines and had her hair done. After caring for her husband who died after having dementia for ten years, she really showed her newfound independence and stubbornness, traits her family always wondered from where they came.
Carolyn is survived by her son, Michael Hausen (Robin) of Grants Pass, OR; her daughter, Susan Doudy (David) of Dolores, CO; and daughter-in-law Laurel Pye of Centennial, CO; her brothers, David Shepherd (Ruth Ann) of Savanna, MO, and Craig Shepherd (Janet) of Grand Rapids, MI; her grandchildren, Adam (Robin) Hausen, Aaron (Christina) Hausen, Luke (Angel) Morris, Lacey (Brian) Murphy, and William Hausen; and her great grandchildren, Tyler Hausen, Teegan Morris, Makayla Hausen, Ryan Hausen, Kamryn Murphy, and Kacen Murphy. Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents; her spouse of 69 years, Roger Charles Hausen; her son, Roger Charles Hausen Jr.; and her siblings, Larry Shepherd, Roger Shepherd, Cathy Hookham, and Jann Almquist.
Roger and Carolyn’s ashes will be laid to rest together in Villisca, Iowa.