Carol Barbara Schatzel

AUSTINTOWN - Carol Barbara Schatzel, 80, left Hospice House on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. Her visit was comfortable, peaceful and brief. She had somewhere important to be, and people she wanted to see were waiting for her.

Carol was born Jan. 17, 1938, in Brooklyn, N.Y., a daughter of Youngstown natives Clarence and Mary Genevieve Gorski Rohrbaugh.  She returned to the area with her mother as a child, settling on the city’s South Side. She graduated from South High in 1956.  

In 1958, the trained beautician and blonde beauty (can we say “bombshell”!) caught the eye of John Walter Schatzel at a dance at the old Idora Park Ballroom. (The Pointview Dance Hall on Western Reserve Road was another of their haunts). They made it official on Nov. 14, 1959, built a home in Austintown and were an item for 51 years until his death June 5, 2010. She was, as Neil Diamond sang, John’s “Sweet Caroline.”

During her marriage, Carol worked at the Ursuline Motherhouse and did hair at home and the former Sleighbell Nursing Home.  She was involved in Time Bank Mahoning Watershed and embraced technology, never being without her iPad. She also was a sales “Force” on eBay (cha-ching!)

Yet no matter how busy she was, family came first. She and John were blessed with three children, Deborah (Charles Jr.) Farkas of Struthers, John A. (Jenn) Schatzel of Austintown, and Gary (Cathy) Schatzel of Brookfield, and seven grandchildren, Jared (Kristy), Nicole and Brittany Farkas and Erica, John Eric, Alec and Ben Schatzel, but Carol had the opportunity to also enjoy two great-granddaughters, Alaina and Eliana Farkas. All will miss her dearly. She also leaves brother-in-law Bill (Nancy) Schatzel of Cortland; nephews Jason (Nalini) of Dayton and Aaron (Dawn) Schatzel, Parma Heights; and great-nephew and great-nieces Anthony, Marissa, Sarah, and Annabelle Schatzel.

Friends and family may call from 4 to 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 26, at Kinnick Funeral Home, 477 N. Meridian Road, Youngstown. A celebration of her life will begin at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, at the funeral home, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 at St. Joseph Church, 4545 New Road, where Carol has been a long-time parishioner. Her wish was to be cremated and her cremated remains interred at Resurrection Cemetery with her husband. Now in death they will be as inseparable as they were in life. (“And when I hurt … Hurting runs off my shoulders … How can I hurt when I’m holding you…”)

Carol’s family thanks the doctors, nurses, social workers, and staff at Briarfield and Mercy Health at both St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown and Hospice House for the excellent medical care, their dedication and their compassion.

In lieu of flowers, Carol’s family asks that donations be made in her name to The Shrine of Our Lady, Comforter of the Afflicted, 517 S. Belle Vista Ave., Youngstown, OH 44509, where she was in the Rosary-Makers group and consecrated as a secular Franciscan.