Obituary: Loretta Carole (Faust) Olson, 79, of Ludington

Carole Olson

Obituary: Loretta Carole (Faust) Olson, 79, of Ludington

Loretta Carole (Faust) Olson of Ludington,  formerly of St. Peter, Minn., Hutchinson, Minn., Le Sueur, Minn., and Beaver Dam, Wis., passed away on March 15, 2020, in Ludington at the age of 79 after a 16 year struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.  Loretta Carole Faust was born on June 2, 1940 in St. Peter  to Eugene and Vivian Faust. She graduated from St. Peter High School with the class of 1958. She was married to Orville J. Olson on October 27, 1962, in St. Peter.  

She was preceded in death by her parents, by siblings Clarence Faust, Phyllis (Faust) Childs, Adella (Faust) Fuller and Dorothy (Faust) Fuller; and recently by her husband Orville.  

She is survived by her daughters Gretchen (Mark) Luce of Ludington, and Joanne (Tatsuji) Ebihara of Lombard, Ill.; grandsons William and Cooper Luce, Samuel and Paul Ebihara; and siblings Delane (Dick) Renfroe of Prior Lake, Minn., and Audrey (Elmer) Olsen of Garden City, Minn.

Carole worked at many different companies during her working years and was always the “go-to” person everywhere she worked.  Her favorite job of all, however, was at the Great Lakes Visitor Center at Ludington State Park where she worked from 1997 to 2007.  She loved leading hikes to identify poison ivy, collecting caterpillars and displaying hatching monarch butterflies, teaching kids to fish and helping visitors and locals alike explore the beauty of Ludington State Park.  It was one of her favorite places in the world.  

In addition to working, Carole volunteered for many, many years through various churches and in the community specifically as being a reading helper in elementary schools.  She loved to have students practice their reading with her and especially loved to be in Drew Lyons’ classroom.  She volunteered for many years at Scottville Elementary school and South Hamlin Elementary school.  Her other passion was volunteering with the Audubon Society bird counts through the Sable Dunes Audubon Society. She volunteered from 2001 to 2014 when she was no longer able. She loved watching birds, especially woodpeckers and the endangered Piping Plover, a summertime resident on Great Lakes beaches.  She even worked one summer as a “plover watcher” watching and tagging newly hatched chicks. 

Carole also enjoyed her afternoon bowling league, swimming in the early mornings at the Donald Baldwin Community Pool in Ludington, eating lunch with her friends at Hunan Gardens, ice skating and making sure all the wildlife in her back 6 acres were thriving.  She also shared this love of nature with all her grandsons and together they could often be found searching the milkweed for caterpillars, talking about the monarch migration to Mexico and discussing the upcoming Green Bay Packer football season.

Carole’s family is deeply grateful to the staff of the Sutter Living Center and Oakview Medical Care Facility where she has resided for the past 4 ½ years.  Their care for Carole over these years is deeply appreciated.  Carole’s family will miss her jokes, her laugh, her undying devotion to the Green Bay Packers, her love of nature and her love for her family.  
There are no services planned at this time.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Oak Grove Funeral Home of Ludington, www.oakgroveludington.com.