LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Our sweet valentine, Carmen Carpenter, passed away on Feb. 26, 2015, at 100 years of age.

Born on Feb. 14, 1915, in Billings, Mont., Carmen was the oldest of three sisters.

As a child, her family moved to lnchelium, Wash., where she grew up on the family farm.

She graduated from Colville High School and attended Withworth College for two years.

She met Grover (Bo) Carpenter who was a surveyor working for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey which was working on the Grand Coulee Dam Project.

They married in 1935 and Carmen accompanied Bo on his surveying jobs in Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona.

They settled in Kelseyville after World War ll ended and raised two sons.

Carmen was very active in school and community clubs all her life. She played her saxophone at school dances and with a band at local establishments where there was dancing. She played her sax and marched in local parades well into her 90s.

She helped arrange and decorate flowers in the Presbyterian Church in Kelseyville for many years and loved to enter flower arrangements in the Lake County Fair.

Carmen loved parties and she often dressed up in costumes she had made for club events and parades.

Carmen is survived by her sons, Charles (Nancy) of Kelseyville and James (Maureen) of Lakeport; grandsons, Matthew (Mariann) of Kelseyville, Douglas of Tracy and Andrew of Finley; and great-grandchildren Kylie of Santa Cruz, Josh of Tracy, Nate and Alex of Finley.

Carmen was preceded in death by her two sisters, Virginia and Barbara.

Memorial services will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, 5340 Third St.

The family would like to thank Hospice of Lake County for its help.