Carol Rose remembered in {a photograph} – Daily Democrat

There are sure pictures that stick with you. As a journalist, editor and photographer, some occasions and people are imprinted on my thoughts in vivid element.

Such was the case with Carol Rose, who died on Feb. 18, at age 90. I knew “Mrs. Rose” had died shortly after it was introduced by her household in a Facebook submit. But I’m respectful to household and buddies in such issues and didn’t need to write something till that they had made a public announcement, which was finished final Sunday in a Daily Democrat obituary.

The final time I noticed Mrs. Rose was when she was in a wheelchair at The Californian. I used to be attending the 104th celebration for Evelyn Dahl on July 18, 2025. Mrs. Rose was close by. I went over, and we made small speak.

About two years earlier, Mrs. Rose and a daughter had been having beers at Blue Note Brewery. They invited me to their desk for dialog and earlier than I knew it the daughter was perched on my knee taking a selfie, her mother within the background.

But the picture that claims with me was of not less than a decade earlier, throughout a Memorial Day service on the previous Yolo County Courthouse.

Mrs. Rose was seated within the entrance row. She was holding a framed {photograph} of her late husband of 49 years, Ellis William “Bill” Rose Jr, who had died in 2007.

The reminiscence of Mrs. Rose’s face is etched in my mind as a result of the reddish hue of her face contrasted with the black and white framed {photograph}. She seemed elfin: Calm, quiet, reserved, with mischievous eyes.

According to the Sunday obituary offered by her household, Mrs. Rose was born and grew up in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 3, 1936. She met her future husband on the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Jan. 1, 1958, on a blind date. They had been married the next December.

After transferring to California together with her husband, Mrs. Rose taught in Davis.

The household describes Mrs. Rose as being “outspoken,” “a character and a force in the lives of those around her. She was involved in the community and many organizations benefited from her willingness to help,” such because the Chamber of Commerce, Yolo Arts, Woodland Opera House, and Woodland Shakespeare Club.”

This is true, but it surely doesn’t inform the entire story. She was additionally outspoken on native points as effectively, which may very well be seen in lots of her letters to the editor.

In April 2017, she wrote about southward development for the town’s General Plan as a member of the Woodland Area General Plan Citizens’ Advisory Committee. She wrote that the City Council had “turned their backs” on a bunch who had rewritten the brand new General Plan to point development nearer to the Yolo Bypass.

“This abomination was a loud and power-grabbing raising of the collective middle finger. The taxpayers of our town will be the losers. How could you have possibly done this? To direct the growth of Woodland towards the sinkhole of this Northern California area is indeed unfortunate.”

Still one other letter addressed homelessness in Woodland with Mrs. Rose writing about an individual residing in her oleander bushes, “complete with rugs, storage containers, and decorations for the Christmas season,” which stuffed a number of dumpsters.

The letter continues on at some size, with Mrs. Rose ultimately writing, “What can I do about this except just keep my mouth shut and tolerate it?”

No, Mrs. Rose would by no means “tolerate” something. For such a quiet-looking particular person, she certain spoke up when needed.

-Jim Smith is the previous editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year profession on the paper.