Phyllis Elvera Carlson

Phyllis Elvera Carlson, 96, of Aurora, IL passed away peacefully on October 26, 2021. She was born on June 27, 1925, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Maude A. (Westberg) and Claus A. Carlson.

Phyllis graduated from Patrick Henry High School, attended the Minneapolis Institute of Art at the University of Minnesota, and subsequently was employed as a fashion illustrator for Young-Quinlan in Minneapolis. Later, she worked for Dayton Hudson in Minneapolis and for Marshall Fields in Chicago.

She married Wallace Oscar Carlson on December 12, 1953 and they enjoyed 63 wonderful years together until his passing on June 23, 2017. They moved from Golden Valley, Minnesota to Mount Prospect, Illinois in 1968 and spent the remainder of their years in the Chicagoland area.

While an accomplished artist, Phyllis’ passions were family, home, friends, and community. She was a devoted wife and mother, doing everything from teaching Sunday school, to creating themed dinners for business guests, to delivering home-baked holiday gingerbread men to the neighborhood children, to sewing costumes for school plays, to lending support as a “band mom” and Girl Scout Leader. She also enjoyed playing the piano and the companionship of her canine family members. Everyone she met remembered her as soft-spoken, gently assertive, and unerringly kind. 

She is survived by her beloved daughter and son-in law, Gail and Joe Golab and, in addition to her husband, was preceded in death by her parents.

Interment at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois will be private. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory to Canine Companions for Independence, www.canine.org, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, www.avmf.org, or the Parkinson’s Foundation, www.parkinson.org are appreciated. Arrangements have been entrusted to Dieterle Memorial Home.