Carolyn Theresa Nemec

Carolyn Theresa Mahdak Nemec, who was born Monday, April 24, 1916, in Ennis, TX, and passed away Monday, March 3, 2014, in Dallas, TX, was a member of the Czech Insurance Lodge, SPJST #84 Dallas for so many years that on her 96th birthday on April 24, 2012, she outlived her policy and was awarded a certificate.

Her parents were Czech immigrants John Mahdak from Ostrata, Czechoslovakia, and Frances Pavlicek Mahdak from Hrobice, Czechoslovakia, both deceased, and she grew up in a household immersed in Czech language, music, and tradition. Her father told her and her 3 sisters and 5 brothers Czech fairy tales, which she passed down to her children and grandchildren. Her favorite story was of the Hasterman, an ugly, evil Czech water sprite, covered with scales and slimy seaweed. Her father used to tell his children this story to scare them and keep them from swimming in the farm's stock tank.

Carolyn is also survived by her last youngest living brother, Bernard Mahdak, his wife, Julie, and his children Andy Mahdak & his wife Jonye; and their son, Zack, and his wife Samantha, and children Autumn, Colton and Makenzie; and son Houston; and daughter Laura Gosnell and her husband Jim, and son Sean.

Her 3 sisters, Mary Mahdak Mikus, Frances Mahdak Crane, Wilma Mahdak Gribbin, and her other 4 brothers John, Gerard, Lewis and George, all Mahdaks, are deceased, but they have many surviving family members.

Carolyn joined the Catholic Sokol in Ennis, TX, around 1934 when she was 18, where her older sisters Wilma and Frances had joined before her, and eventually became the Women's Nacelnice, which is the Czech word for Instructor.

A group comprised primarily of Ennis Sokol gymnasts formed several Beseda dance circles and went on to perform at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition held on the Texas State Fair grounds near downtown Dallas. The Beseda is the national dance of the Czech people. She was always proud that her children and several of her grandchildren and great grandchildren have all danced the Beseda at the State Fair, also, in the Czech costumes called kroj she sewed for them, just as she sewed her own kroj in 1936, and sewed scores of other kroje since then for SPJST Lodge 84. The last one she made at age 96 was for one of her relatives for the Ennis National Polka Festival!

At 19, Carolyn left the family farm in 1937 to live in Dallas and make a living for herself as a nanny until she married in 1940. She took up this occupation again years later after her own children had left the roost.

Carolyn married George William Nemec, Sr. on Sunday, November 17, 1940, at St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church in Ennis. She and George were blessed with 5 children, all born in Dallas, and 10 Grandchildren and 9 Great-grandchildren, all of whom survive her: Daughter Carole Annette Nemec Faraizl, husband Ray, their children Ray, Jr., Renee Oberle, her husband David, Sr., their daughter Nicole, and their son David, Jr. and his wife Brianna; and Faraizl children Adam and Mandy. George Wm. Nemec, Jr., and his daughter Alice and her partner Chris Barnes, and George's son Chris. Daughter Margaret Holub, and her step-son, Preston Peterson and his wife, Kimberly, and sons Caleb, Jonah and Issac. Son Ed Nemec and his wife Krissi, and their daughter Delaney. Daughter Liz Opiela and her husband, Roger. Liz's son Sean and his wife, Maggie and their daughters Chloe and Adelaide, and Liz's daughter Carly and husband Rob Acox and their sons Xander and Sam. Carolyn's husband George worked as a Skilled Floor Mechanic for Blue Diamond and Ed Morgan and sons for many years and preceded her in death on May 6, 1971. Carolyn also has numerous other nieces and nephews and friends and cousins, and other relatives in both the United States and the Czech Republic that have survived her.

While her children were in grade school, Carolyn excelled as a homemaker and volunteer. She served as a Blue Bird Leader and Camp Fire Guardian for 5 years at Holy Trinity Catholic School in Dallas where she was also in the Mother's Club and on the Telephone Committee from the 1940's to the 1960's. During the time the family lived in Holy Trinity Parish and later St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, both in Dallas, she was active in both of their Women's Altar Societies. She had taken pride in being a member of the Catholic Daughters since 1964, and was honored to receive her 45-year pin from the organization several years ago. She was also a leader for the Dallas SPJST Lodge 84 Teen and Junior Youth Clubs for many years. She was a member of Lodge 84 since 1947. She also found time along the way to take on jobs as a baby sitter and as an employee of Frontier Stamps, where she received her 10 year pin, and after that, as an S&H Green Stamp employee, where she became the store's Floor Manager.

Carolyn's hand-sewn costumes always won prizes when she was a young girl growing up in Ennis, and also the ones she sewed for her children in grade school and in the SPJST productions, and, while Carolyn's oldest daughter Carole was attending Ursuline Academy High School, she made all her costumes for the stage productions held there each of the four years. Also, while her daughter Margaret attended Bishop Lynch High School, Carolyn helped Margaret design and sew 35 costumes for the production of the musical, The King and I, in which Margaret also played a leading role. Carolyn used to help her youngest daughter Liz design and sew costumes for the Mardi Gras in Jefferson TX, where Liz designed and built her own floats for the last 25 years.

Since 1991, Carolyn had enjoyed being an active member of the Dallas Krouzek - Circle of Czech Women, and she had also been a member of the Ennis Chapter of the Czech Heritage Society of Texas for many years, keeping her Czech roots alive in Texas.

Carolyn had always been a great Czech cook and an avid, accomplished gardener, tending her beautiful flower gardens at all 3 of the houses she lived in since she was married, and loved to propagate all types of plants, but her favorites were her irises and roses. She really liked mowing her own lawn, too, until she was 89 when her children took over that duty for her! She loved teaching her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren how to cook all kinds of delicious dishes, especially Czech ones like her traditional Czech pork roast, sauerkraut and dumplings, and her apple strudel and mouth-watering kolaches. She always had many funny stories to tell.

Over the years she had traveled extensively around the country and outside of the United States with her children. Of all her excursions, the trips she enjoyed the most were the two tours she made to Czechoslovakia in 1979 and in 1983 to visit relatives when the nation was still cloaked behind the Iron Curtain and under Communist rule. Her 2001 tour there, when she was 85, was made with her daughter Carole and Carole's son Adam, and marked the last time she would visit her Czech relatives there in person.

Carolyn's daughter Carole compiled over 7,000 photos from her 97 years into 11 archival picture albums, 6 of which have "picture proof positive" chronicling all these events from her life.

We'd like to conclude with an except from her favorite poem, November, by Alice Cary, which young Carolyn memorized while attending grade school in Ennis, but could still recite from memory after all these years.

The leaves are fading and falling;
The winds are rough and wild;
The birds have ceased their calling -
But let me tell you, my child,

Though day by day, as it closes
Doth darker and colder grow,
The roots of the bright red roses
Will keep alive under the snow.

And when the winter is over,
The boughs will get new leaves,
The quail come back to the clover,
And the swallow back to the eaves.

Rest in God's Peace, Mom - you deserve it.