Carolyn Jones Leontos happily explored the world until she passed away on August 9, 2023. She is currently volunteering in heaven, upgrading the menus and organizing travel adventures for her fellow residents in between her Pilates workouts.

Carolyn was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 20, 1937, the tenth child and ninth daughter of Charles Louis Jones and Mary Elizabeth Kane Jones. Carolyn is predeceased by her parents, her husband Arthur Harry Leontos, her brother Robert Jones, and her sisters Mary Hyland, Eleanor Hinkson, Dorothy Hogan Sweeney, Janet O'Connor, Frances Distelrath, Kathleen Rudberg and Ruth Chisholm.  Carolyn is survived by her sister Sarah (Sally) Keough, her godchildren Della Connors, Lucy Vomastek, Christopher Keough, and Dana Wanago, and adult-onset godchildren Matt Keough, Carolyn Rudberg and Kate Terrell. She is also survived by 37 of her 47 nieces and nephews and their spouses and their children and their children's children, and she knew all their names.

Carolyn was the last of the nine Jones girls to graduate from St. Cecilia's High School, matriculating at the University of Detroit where she earned a degree in dental hygiene. After working in the field for a year Carolyn joined the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) as a novice in Monroe, Michigan. She taught school until she began her master's degree in dietetics at Case Western University, where she joined a merry gang of nutritionists who remained friends and travel companions all her life. Carolyn shared an apartment with fellow student Riska (Platt) Wanago close to campus as the late 1960s social revolution raged just outside their door. In those days it took real courage for a 100-pound young woman dressed in an old-fashioned nun's habit and veil to walk through a rough neighborhood of Cleveland. Carolyn managed it every day by just being herself, befriending everybody and babysitting for the families of the Cleveland Browns.

As a new graduate, Carolyn spent a year at the IHM Motherhouse complex, redesigning the menus and kitchen and helping to serve thousands each day. She never took her final vows, instead mustering her courage and leaving the security of the IHM sisters on excellent terms to build a life on her own that didn't require poverty, chastity, or obedience. A devout but occasionally irreverent lifelong Roman Catholic, Carolyn discovered her true calling was to improve the lives of people through nutrition.

With Riska's support, Carolyn got her first civilian job at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as an administrative dietitian. To the surprise of some of her Motor City-based family, she chose not to own a car and hosted many of them to share her love of New York City anyway.

Carolyn's next move was from the Upper East Side of New York City to a tiny apartment one block from the French Quarter in New Orleans. She took a big, challenging job on the Mississippi Queen, combining her administrative and therapeutic education and experience on the largest paddle steamboat that had ever been built. She was the manager of hotel and quality services for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company when she met her husband Art, the Mississippi Queen's engineer.

Carolyn and Art married in 1979 and when Art retired he announced that he wanted Carolyn to freely choose their next home. He enthusiastically suggested Carolyn's solo trip to the warm dry climates she was considering, steadfastly refused to influence her decision and happily packed when she picked Las Vegas. Art was an intelligent man with a generous spirit and Carolyn loved everything about him.

Carolyn was hired sight unseen to be the clinical dietitian and nutrition educator for Humana Hospital Sunrise. She seized the new title "nutrition educator" with gusto. She later became a Certified Diabetes Educator and then a college professor at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and the Southern Nevada Food and Nutrition Specialist.

She chaired the American Diabetes Association's Diabetes Care and Education Dietetic Practice Group, served on the Board of Directors for the American Diabetes Association, on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and on the Steering and Operations Committees of the National Diabetes Education Program of the National Institutes of Health/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Evidently, this was not enough to keep Carolyn busy so she also served on the editorial board of Diabetes Forecast, was President of the Nevada affiliate of the American Diabetes Association, President of the Dietetic Association, and was on the board of the Southern Nevada Division of the American Heart Association. In her spare time Carolyn wrote four books and her work was published in Newsweek, USA Today, Diabetes Forecast, and Hospitality magazine.

Carolyn's accomplishments were so impressive the University of Nevada bragged about her in an ad with the headline "She's working to help millions of people live longer".

During this time in Las Vegas Carolyn was also the loving and devoted caregiver of her cherished husband Art, whom she lost in 2001. Afterwards she became even more deeply aware of the needs of others who experienced loss and devoted herself to bringing joy back into their lives.

While Carolyn's professional awards and affiliations are too numerous to mention, it was her volunteer work that was closest to her heart. Chefs for Kids, The Human Good Foundation, and Opportunity Village were some of her favorites and she remained active with them and as a Dame of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre throughout her "retirement".

It never occurred to Carolyn to slow down. She was active on issues in her continuous retirement community of Las Ventanas and continued her travels with her many friends and family, eventually traveling to all 50 states and all 7 continents, often with friends Sandy Holiday, Riska Wanago, or Gustav and Denise Mauler. She explored French Polynesia, Australia, and New Zealand by ship and raved about the ship's butler. She toured Alaska by paddle wheel boat. She sailed down the Danube and through the British Isles. She hiked through Spain and Portugal and twirled and lingered in Paris and Monaco. She rode trains through Switzerland, sailed through the Panama Canal, and hiked through Ireland and Normandy. She lounged in Greece and cooked her way through Italy. She took historic vehicles through Canada, floated in the blue lagoon of Iceland, and loved opera festivals in Germany and England. She even convinced Riska to take Antarctica's version of a pleasure cruise on a retrofit ice cutter. Carolyn went everywhere that could be reached by water, air, or land, and she explored it all with an open heart and an irrepressible joy for life. Carolyn coined the term and declared herself a WMD (well-maintained dame!) always delightfully dressed, coiffed, manicured, and accessorized. Carolyn never slowed down, she never got old, and she is still inspiring us all by the example of her wonderful life.

Family and friends are invited to attend Carolyn's Funeral Mass in either Las Vegas, Nevada, or Farmington, Michigan.

The Las Vegas, NV Celebration will be on September 23, 2023, at 9:30 AM Visitation and Mass at 10:00 AM at Guardian Angel Cathedral, 302 Cathedral Way, Las Vegas, NV 89109.

The Farmington, MI Celebration will be on October 7, 2023, at 9:30 AM - Visitation and 10:00 AM Mass at Our Lady Sorrows Catholic Church, 23815 Power Rd, Farmington, MI 48336.

For those who wish to make a memorial contribution, we kindly suggest, the World Central Kitchen or Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada.

To send condolences, please sign the online guestbook associated with this page.