Carolyn Calhoun Huckabay

On Friday, February 24, 2023, Carolyn Calhoun Huckabay joined her mother, Clista Andrews Calhoun, father, Maurice Riemer Calhoun and brother, Thomas Allen Calhoun in eternal peace and was welcomed into God’s loving arms.

Carolyn was born on March 9, 1935, in Texarkana, Arkansas, to Riemer and Clista Calhoun and lived in north Louisiana for most of her life. She was a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and leader in her community: the first woman on the City Council of Shreveport, a deacon and leader in First Baptist Church, and active in many areas of community service and culture.

In 1955, she married Douglas Whitehurst, with whom she had three girls, Clista, Tracie, and Mary Evelyn. Over the years, she became grandmother to eight grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren. To them, and to her grandchildren’s spouses who loved her as well, she was “G-mo.” 

In 1990, Carolyn married William “Bill” Huckabay, and they spent many joyful years traveling to Crested Butte, Colorado, where they loved to host family and friends from near and far. 

In her lifetime, Carolyn was many things—a delightful hostess who could also maneuver a four-wheeler through the mountains, a “G-mo” who taught all of her grandchildren to drive at age eleven (sometimes ten), a civic leader who ran for Mayor of Shreveport, a devout wife to Bill, and a cherished friend:  to her life-long friends from Mansfield, to her special group from college, to her friends in church, social, “Baptist Basters,” Art Group, Study Group/Reading group in Shreveport, and to her friends in Crested Butte, where the group hiked as “Babes in Boots.” She could play the piano beautifully, and she rarely-if ever-missed Art or Reading Group!  Over the years, she produced many paintings that she shared with her children and grandchildren. 

Carolyn didn’t just love people—she loved to connect them to one another. It wasn’t uncommon for her to invite a grandchild or great-grandchild to join her at Art (“Come to art!”), or for her to announce that she’d invited someone over to her house to meet you, and so you planned to be there, right? Indeed, it sometimes seemed like nothing gave her more joy than introducing two people whom she liked, and whom she thought would get along. She was on a first-name basis with a number of her grandchildren’s friends, welcoming them into her home and treating them like her own family. 

Her energy was infectious. Her laugh was easy and filled a room, and her home the hub of family activity. She moved to different houses several times over the years, but each one, whether it had a porch swing, or a pool, or a lawn out back, would instantly feel like her  because her personality and vibrance transformed it. When her grandchildren were young, she’d play duets with them on the piano and applaud enthusiastically when they performed endless “plays.” 

Surrounded by friends or family, she lit up like a torch, one friend recalled. 

She also loved to create and to commemorate. She spent years developing her family’s homestead, which had been the location of the Mansfield Female College (the first women’s college west of the Mississippi), into a Museum and Community Center. In 2019, she gifted, to First Baptist Church of Shreveport, the  “Come Until Me” sculpture of Jesus and the children, sculpted by her dear friend, Rosalind Cook, where it now stands in the Woods Memorial Garden.

Carolyn loved a good story, a breathtaking mountain view, a laugh with friends, a glass of wine, a “big juicy” hamburger, an afternoon painting, a surprise call from a daughter or grandchild, an ATV excursion with Bill, a hike with the “Babes in Boots”, a family dinner around her dining table, a large or small party, a trip to New York or Europe. As remarkable as she was in her own right–a fierce advocate for what she believed in as a civic leader and a generous and dedicated church member, she also leaves her mark as a cheerleader and proud G-mo who made her grandchildren and great-grandchildren feel like they could do and be anything. 

In 1992, at “Grandmother Camp,” a week-long stay at her home for all of her young grandchildren (that she willingly chose to host!), she challenged them to memorize 1 Corinthians 13 because she believed it was a chapter of the Bible worth memorizing. 

When completeness comes, what is in part disappears. Faith, hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love, it reads.

Her love endures, and she lives on in the love she left behind.

Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents, Clista Andrews Calhoun and Maurice Riemer Calhoun; her step-mother, Hope Ryder Calhoun; her brother and sister-in-in law, Thomas Allen Calhoun and Beverly Presley Calhoun, and many extended family and friends.  She is survived by her husband, William Osler Huckabay Jr.; daughters, Clista Whitehurst Adkins and husband, Glen, Tracie Whitehurst Woods and husband, Mike and Mary Evelyn Whitehurst and husband, James Thomas; step-sons, William Osler Huckaby III and Edgar Anthony Huckabay; brother and sister-in law, Riemer Calhoun Jr. and Marcia Calhoun; grandchildren, My-Khanh Nguyen and husband, Loc Truong, Katherine Woods Collins and husband, Cliff, Michael Hatfield Woods Jr., Mary Patricia Adkins and husband, Lucas Richter, Erin Woods Morris and husband, Ben, Katie Beth Adkins Ongena and husband, Josh, Margaret Heck Ellis, and Robert Douglas Heck; 14 great-grandchildren; many nieces, nephews, and cousins and many, many friends.

Her family would especially like to thank Dr. Rick Michael, Dr. Trey Baucom, and Dr. Stephen White, Linda and Charles Atkins from Frierson, Jerica Howard from Ringgold, Chitquita Lewis and her family, Earl Alexander and Golden Gate Nursing, Regional Hospice, and the entire staff of the Tower and the Savannah at the Oaks.    

Carolyn’s large life will be celebrated in a service at 11:00 a.m., on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at First Baptist Church Sanctuary, 543 Ockley Dr., Shreveport, Louisiana. Her family would love to greet friends in the church foyer following the service. Officiating the service will be Dr. Jeff Raines.  

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials may be made to First Baptist Church Shreveport, 543 Ockley Dr., Shreveport, Louisiana 71106 or to a charity of your choice.