Carol Jean Laux

On Sunday August 4th, Carol Jean Laux, beloved wife, mother and grandmother, was given an invitation to the party of a lifetime. Though she was brokenhearted to leave behind her loved ones on earth, the opportunity to meet her savior and be reunited with her sisters and parents in the Kingdom of Heaven was more than she could resist. So she shrugged off the chains that heart disease and stroke had held on her for too long, and took the faithful leap. 

Carol was born in Appleton on July 5th, 1949 to Raymond and Doris Noel (Wilz) and grew up on Rexford Street. In 1969 Carol married Michael Laux, who had swept her off her feet and onto the back of his motorcycle in high school. Together Carol and Mike made a home in the country and raised their two daughters, Heather and Nicole. Carol loved to bake, grow flowers and tomatoes, play volleyball, shop, and go up north. Carol made many memories camping at Buffalo Lake, spending weekends at their cabin in Crivitz, and later at their place on Arrowhead Lake. Carol also loved road trips to Michigan, Maine and Florida, as well as one extra special trip with her sisters to California. Carol worked for many years for Guardian Life Insurance Company. She was proud to have gone to night school when her daughters were young, giving her a chance to have a professional career. 

Carol was full of so much love for her five grandchildren and took every opportunity she could to brag about them. They will miss her unique humor, her bottomless bucket of homemade Chex Mix, the endless games of Put-and-Take and Yahtzee they played together around the kitchen table, and the extra hug and kiss she always snuck in when saying goodbye. 

Carol’s Christian faith was a cornerstone of her adult life, and time spent in worship and in Bible study at Christ the Rock Church in Appleton was particularly meaningful in the years before her illness. As her illness progressed, Carol had more opportunities to see Christ’s love in action. Carol’s family would like to express their deepest gratitude for Amy with Compassus Hospice and Amber at Rennes Skilled Nursing in Rhinelander. Caregivers like Amy and Amber are God’s angels on earth. 

Carol was greeted in Heaven by many loved ones, including her parents Ray and Doris Noel, her sisters Barb Coenen and Joan Kieffer, her brother-in-law Jim, niece Laurie, nephew Robb, and great-nephew Jesse. Left behind to figure out life without her are Mike, Carol’s husband of 55 years who was with her through thick and thin and a caregiver at her side until the end, daughter Heather and her husband Pat Van Hefty, daughter Nicole and her husband Daniel Filizetti, grandchildren Jake, Casey and Sylvia Van Hefty and Primo and Gale Filizetti, her brother Brian Noel and his wife Sheri, and many nieces and nephews including Michael Coenen, Kim Dorn and Kayla Ilyas, who held a special place in her heart.

A visitation will be held Monday August 12, 2024, from 3:30 to 5:30 at Wichmann Funeral Home on Superior St. in Appleton, with service at 5:30 and dinner to follow. In lieu of flowers, Carol would be delighted to know that donations were being made in honor of her special love for her special needs granddaughter Sylvia to the SAT B2 Gene Foundation. You can do so at https://satb2gene.org/donate/