Carole Hall Surgi passed away on Wednesday, May 5, at age 87. 

She was born on Sept. 2, 1933, in Springfield, to Viva Marie Bradley Hall and Joseph Eugene Hall. She died at home of natural causes, surrounded by her loving family. Plans for a Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date.

She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Sidney Charles Surgi; her four children, Elizabeth Surgi Mariner (Thom), Cincinnati, Ohio, Diane Marie Surgi Bannon (John), Willard, David Charles Surgi (Tammy Fellwock), Airport Drive, and Paul Joseph Surgi (Tina Harrington), Airport Drive; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren; her brother, David Hall, Carthage; and a sister, Cathy Richardson, Warren, Ark. 

The family moved to Carthage when Carole was a baby. Her brother David was born in 1936 and sister Cathy in 1946.

Carole graduated from Carthage High School in 1951. She attended the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and was voted Sigma NU White Rose. In the fall of 1953, she was injured in an automobile accident on homecoming weekend that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

With care and encouragement from family and doctors, Carole recovered and came to realize that a wheelchair need not be a hindrance to a full life. 

“My doctor was so wise,” she said. “He told me, ‘You are still the same person; you don’t have to change the way you’re living. You can do anything you want to do, but do it sitting down.’ So I took his advice.”

Carole ran a small record store off the Carthage town square for a time, then returned to college to study speech therapy, this time at the wheelchair-accessible University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Her activities included cheerleading for a wheelchair basketball team. 

She returned to Carthage and worked for two years for Tom Cusack, the Jasper County auditor. Although the historic courthouse had an elevator, it was made wheelchair assessible for the first time when a ramp was installed from outside to the basement for Carole’s use.

She met her future husband, Charles, while on a double date with his best friend, Don Roderique. Charles knew immediately he wanted to marry her. After a year and a half of courtship, they wed on Feb. 24, 1960, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Webb City.

The couple had their first child (Beth) later that year and built a wheelchair accessible house on Surgi family land in Airport Drive. They had three more children: twins Diane and David (1962) and Paul (1966). 

And, no, that wheelchair never slowed Carole down. Besides caring for the children and cooking meals, she loved to decorate her home and tend her gardens. She saddled the ponies, mowed the grass on a riding mower, planted flowers and painted rooms. She drove the children to school and activities, often volunteering and substitute teaching in the Joplin Catholic school system. She was both a Cub Scout and Girl Scout leader. An accomplished seamstress, she sewed clothes for her young family and later made all her daughters’ prom dresses and many costumes for high school plays.

In 1976, Carole was first runner up in the Miss Wheelchair Missouri pageant. In the early 1980s, she took classes at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin. She also worked in the family business (Surgi Manufacturing, Carl Junction) for years, keeping the books.

Carole loved spending time with her grandchildren, doing arts and crafts, tending the garden, and playing croquet with them. She learned to sculpt, paint Ukrainian eggs, and as an avid reader, was impossible to beat at Trivial Pursuit. After Charlie’s retirement, they often traveled with friends to locations throughout the States. 

Carole was loved and admired by all her family, friends and everyone with whom she came in contact. Her beautiful smile and sense of humor brought joy. She never regretted, never complained, only asked for help as a last resort. She lived each day as if it was a gift. And each day she lived was a gift to those around her. 

Plans for a celebration of life will be announced at a later date. Arrangements are under the direction of Simpson Funeral Home, Webb City.