Carolyn Ross Geurin Yarmy passed away February 23, 2021 of Alzheimer’s in Black Mountain, NC, with her husband Dick Yarmy by her side. She was 84.
Many people on three continents benefited from her care and attention and her genuine interest in others.
Born in Murray, KY to Burns and Hilda Ross Geurin, she graduated from Highland Park High School in Detroit and earned degrees at the University of Kentucky and the University of Delaware.
In her twenties, she and her first husband Tom Pruett served as missionaries in Mutumbara, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe.) She continued her life of service by working as a social worker for Hospice, the Kent County Dialysis Center, and the State of Delaware. She returned to Lexington, KY in 2000 and became a Donovan scholar, studying Spanish and the history of African countries, served as a tutor in Operation Read where she befriended many immigrant families, and volunteered as a master gardener at the UK Arboretum.
She was a quiet force who valued education, history, travel, music, gardening, and especially relationships. She was also fiercely competitive at games, the healthiest eater you ever met (carrot sticks and sunchips), and a tremendous walker. It’s likely she circumnavigated the globe in miles at least once in her long life.
In 2008, she married Dick Yarmy. Voted “Ideal American Couple” in high school, the pair took up where they’d left off and spent six years in Lexington before moving to North Carolina for the rest of her life.
She is survived by her husband, Dick Yarmy, three daughters, Lynn Pruett (Jim Mansfield) Versailles, KY, Ann (Ray) Tahir of Clayton, NC, and Margit Pruett (Maria Pippidis) of Colora, MD, three stepchildren, Mike Yarmy and Rick Yarmy, Royal Oak, MI, and Sue Stromberg, Livonia, MI, six grandchildren, numerous cousins, and a multitude of friends.
Penland Family Funeral Home is honored to be assisting the Yarmy family with arrangements
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Carolyn Ross (Geurin) Yarmy, please visit our floral store.