Carol’s Obituary Celebrating the life of CAROL LEE KRATZERT SMITH Carol Lee Kratzert Smith (91), beloved stepmom to Music Theatre Wichita’s Wayne Bryan, passed away Sunday morning, February 17, 2019, in her home at Larksfield Place in Wichita. Born January 16, 1928 in North Carolina, she was the daughter of George T. Jackson and Margaret McCullough, who died when Carol was only three, which led to Carol being placed into a succession of church-based boarding schools. Although her father eventually remarried, she never again lived with her father and older brother.
In 1949, after graduation from high school, the energetic and upbeat young woman traveled with a girl friend to California, in search of employment and a more enjoyable life than she had previously known. In 1951 she became a personnel counselor with Mitchell Personnel, a temporary employment agency. Her gift as an employment “matchmaker,” coupled with her tremendous work ethic and delightful demeanor, earned her great success and many accolades.
Fifteen years after joining Mitchell Personnel, she bought the company, running it successfully until she retired in 2001. Reflecting on her fifty years with the firm, she said “I enjoy working. I was never one to stay home”.
In recalling Carol’s special gifts, her co-worker Cynthia Deack said, “She has placed over 10,000+ people into jobs in her lifetime, some that have gone on to become owners of the businesses she sent them to… She has touched all of our lives with her positive energy and intuitive skills”. In June of 1964, Carol married Clifford Frederick Kratzert in Carmel, California, and happily shared his life of hunting lodge ownership, duck hunting, and traveling highways around the United States. Clifford died in 1992 and Carol, following his wishes, embarked on worldwide travels, often with friends, including Alice Taylor, Dorothy Redlin, and Karen and Lynn Troute.
For years, Carol Lee and Clifford had enjoyed friendship with their attorney Elwayne E. Smith and his wife Carolyn. When both Elwayne and Carol Lee became widowed, a gentle courtship began, culminating in their marriage in Downey, California, in 1997. Elwayne, whose first wife had always refused to travel, looked to Lee (as he called her) to show him the world.
“When Lee and I were married, I told her I would like to catch up on the travel I had not done, and to have a wife who played golf. She told me that I was going to get only one-half of that! ” Elwayne soon confided to his sons Wayne and Steven that he had never known his life could be so happy.
In 2002, with the encouragement of their friend Velma Wallace, they moved to Wichita, into a newly constructed villa at Larksfield Place. This lovely house became their “home port” between numerous cruises around the world, and the couple were active and generous patrons within the arts community and with their friends at University Congregational Church. Elwayne passed away in October of 2016.
Although Carol Lee never had children of her own, she was an active, loving, and generous presence in the families she joined. She is survived by her stepsons Wayne (Bryan) Smith of Wichita and Steven C. Smith of North Hollywood, California, and by members of Clifford’s family, including her step granddaughter Carolyn Laymon of Huntington Beach, California. A memorial has been established in Carol’s name at Music Theatre Wichita, 225 W. Douglas, Wichita, KS 67202.
A celebration of Carol’s life will be held on Friday March 1 at 4 pm in the auditorium of Larksfield Place, 7373 E. 29th St. N, Wichita.
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