Carol Synness, age 88, of Helena

The late Carol Synness (1934-2023) enjoyed a multitude of exciting experiences and accomplished a variety of undertakings during the course of her 88½ years. And she achieved it all by incorporating a combination of curiosity, skill, talent, smarts and a determination to succeed. Plus with her great sense of humor, she had fun doing it. Most of the time.

“She was an amazing Mom,” related her daughter, Brenda, “and she lived a life full of adventure, fun and travel, shared with many friends and family.

“I remember growing up, she never sat still and was always busy. She rarely hired anything out, just tackled every project herself. When I was a kid I’d always brag, ‘My mom can do anything!’”

Carol was a loving wife, a hard-working mother of six, a tireless logistics coordinator of countless family functions, and a devoted grandmother of 11 and “GG” to 15.

But most of all, she was our Matriarch.

Carol Elaine (Lynch) Synness, was born September 30, 1934, in Butte, America, the second daughter of Maurice “Mo” and Gwendolyn (Coad) Lynch. After suffering a serious knee injury in a Butte mine, Moe relocated his young family to Helena, at 1224 Poplar Street.

In May 1938, Moe entered the business partnership of a grocery/meat market shop called “The New Cash Market” at 54 South Main Street (now called Last Chance Gulch). In her autobiography “The Roller Coaster Ride to Paradise,” Carol wrote that her earliest memory was being “confined in a crib” in the back of their store.

Carol related many fond memories of growing up in the South Main district with her older sister Kay (by 2 years) during the latter part of the Great Depression. They took their “weekly bath” at a barber shop/bathhouse across the street for 25-cents.

The eclectic neighborhood consisted of residences connected to their family businesses, the Marlow Theater, the Wing Shing Grocery, 7 saloons, and “3 or 4 houses of ill repute.”

In 1939, the Lynches moved to 1905 Columbia Street, and in 1943 Mo started an auto wrecking yard across the street, at the corner of Chestnut and Columbia.

Among her memories growing up were visiting relatives in Butte (riding the roller coaster at Columbia Gardens), Ronan, Radersburg, Manhattan and Sheridan.

In 1942, she joined Cidney Munn’s Dance Class, where she learned to perfect her splits, cartwheels and hand springs. This training was the foundation for her stints as a Bryant School cheerleader (where she showed off her tumbling skills), and then as a majorette with Helena High’s band her freshman and sophomore years. Precursors to the Bengalettes, the twirlers performed routines with “intricate formations” at football halftimes and for the Vigilante Parade.

Young Carol possessed an innate desire for adventure that lasted a lifetime. Her varied escapades included spelunking behind Kay through the underground storm sewer drainage culvert, from Bryant and under the tracks to Phoenix St.; to an illegal ascent to the top of the 75-foot high Phillips 66 oil storage tank on Columbia Ave. with cousin Frank Lehman.

It was also at Bryant School where Carol cut her teeth for her future pastime as a self-published author, serving as the 8th-grade school newspaper’s publisher.

At ages 14-16, she worked all three downtown movie theaters; the Antlers, Marlow and Vigilante. Once in 1949 while Carol was manning the ticket booth and Burl Ives was entertaining at the Antlers, he came over and introduced himself.

Carol and Kay’s outdoors activities included horseback riding and swimming at the surrounding lakes in the summertime, and in the winter time, skiing at McDonald Pass and ice skating. Among her indoor activities was a fascination with the displays in the basement of the Montana Historical society, where she nurtured her obsession with history.

Carol had learned how to drive at the 11 years of age – a WWII jeep, with stick shift and clutch – and at 15 she drove one of three vehicles that her Dad sold in Spokane. They returned home in a roofless army DUKW (Duck Boat).

Grandson Noell related driving around town with her 40 years later in her Cadillac, and how she “had a lead-foot” and he “loved the way she always drove fast.”

On New Year’s Eve 1950, the Lynch sisters and cousin Frank headed out in Mo’s brand new Buick on a cold, snowy night, to celebrate at the Nite Owl. There, they discovered a young man lying in a snow drift, “kind of passed out and freezing his butt off,” and Kay helped him inside their toasty warm car to thaw him out.

“I thought he was just a ‘drunk’ and told her not to bother with him,” Carol wrote in Roller Coaster Ride.

The young man turned about to be Wes Synness. One thing led to another, the following year Wes and Carol were wed, and the marriage lasted 69 years, until his passing in 2020.

She was married at 17, gave birth to first child Curt (1952) at 18 years old, followed by Trent (1953) and Greg (1954). She had three sons by the age of 21, each 13 months apart. Jay (1958) and Wayne (1960) made it 5 boys at 25½ years of age. When daughter Brenda joined her siblings in 1968, the couple’s family was complete.

Their first home was located near Ehlers Corner, before moving into town at 1612 Poplar Street, when Wes purchased the wrecking yard there from Mo.

Ingrained with a strong work ethic – in addition to raising six kids and wrangling an “untamed” Wes – Carol also worked outside the home off and on, at the First National Bank, Fort Harrison and for the State at the Department of Administration in the data entry division.

Over the course of her life, she mastered a variety of skill sets. She was a talented cook (son Greg said her “famous baked beans” were his favorite), photographer and film developer, antique collector, seamstress and old car restorer. She sewed and installed the upholstery for the seats and doors/roof liner herself with burgundy velour, for her 1951 Studebaker Champion.

Carol was an integral part of the families nonstop outdoor activities, including attending rodeos, hiking, water and snow skiing, snowmobiling, and countless weekend (or longer) forays to the Synness’ Beartooth Homestead below the Sleeping Giant.

“Our times at the cabin…Grandma was always present in the moment, making jokes and teasing people,” granddaughter  Keena said, adding how she brought levity to the sometimes “work” environment by creating “social interaction with fun activities.”

Carol took part in dozens of the moonlight trail rides on horseback, down the Indian (North) Trail to the Missouri River and “Synness Beach.”

As a hunter she bagged a mountain goat, and as a mountaineer she bagged Granite Peak. She also owned dozens of ascents to the Giant’s Nose, the last at 65-years of age. Son Jay remembered the time that he, Dad, Mom and brother Greg rode horseback into the Bob Marshall and camped out at the Chinese Wall for three days.

Always game for travel and adventure – on family vacations and/or visiting relatives – she reveled in places like the Superstitious Mountains of Arizona; Quake Lake after the 1959 earthquake; the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair; the Malamute Saloon in Skagway, Alaska; the Calgary Stampede; Ft. Myers Beach, Florida; Mount Saint Helens after the eruption; visiting in-laws in Chicago; and a Hawaiin vacation, to name a few.

When she became obsessed with the daunting task of researching our families genealogy – before the advent of computers and the internet – she made a solo journey to Kansas in quest of her parents’ forebearers lineage, where she spent countless hours scouring microfilm and county birth and death records.

After attaining her G.E.D. and always hungry for knowledge, she developed a passion for modern technologies, becoming proficient with computers before they became vogue. These newly acquired skills came in handy while building at least 8 fabulous bi-decade Family Reunion pamphlets, and authoring and self-publishing 12 books.

Among her other interests were animal lover, rock hound, cabin designer, furniture restorer and gardener. Granddaughter Cassie recalled how, beginning at the age of 2, she and “Gram planted tulips in the fall.” And every year afterwards until she was about 25, Carol “would plant lollypops when the tulips bloomed,” and Cassie would go pick them.

Carol loved reading about and researching Helena and Montana history, and volunteering at the Montana Historical Society. Every once in a while the “pit bull” in her reared its, whenever it came to preserving our local historical integrity and traditions.

In the early 1990s, Wes and Carol moved from the “Junkyard House” on Hiway 12 East, to 1230 Poplar St., next door to her first home in Helena in 1938.

After she passed, granddaughter Alyssa texted, “Gramma has been there in that house whenever I’ve gone, for over 20 years. It’s not gonna be the same without her.”

Carol loved following her children’s and grandchildren’s sports. Grandpa and Grandma had their “assigned seats” for Lady Bengal basketball games, and every once in a while a certain voice echoed off the walls of The Jungle a little louder than most, whenever she questioned an official’s interpretation of the rules.

“Gramma pushed us to do camps, to practice and to stay in shape,” granddaughter Lizzy said. She remembered getting “congratulatory cards” after games, adding, “There’s nothing better than getting snail mail from Gramma!”

Grandson Michael recounted how Grandma Carol drove him to Butte in a snowstorm for a rasslin’ match, and even though he lost, gave him encouragement on the drive home. When she visited her oldest great grandson Jimmie in Oregon shortly after his birth in 2003, she noted “This baby’s head is shaped just like a basketball.” It was a premonition of things to come.

“GG” collected a large contingent of close friends over the years – too many to mention here – but they and their survivors know who they are.

Carol was predeceased by her parents, sister Kay Lunch, husband Wes Synness, son Trent Synness, daughter-in-law Amy Synness, and grandchildren Oden Synness, Hunter Bossler and Desiree Synness.

She is survived by sons Curt (Melisa), Greg, Jay (Marla) and Wayne (Carol); daughter Brenda; grandchildren Elizabeth Kay, Christina Synness, Dan Synness, Mike Synness, Rachel Synness, Noell Jorgenson, Alyssa Johnson and Cassie Bahnmiller; and great grandchildren Jimmie, Timmy, Mauriice, Weston, Parker, Oden, Corbin, Colby, Lily, Adelin, Ellie, Hudson, Sullivan, Austyn and Lucille. Also several cousins and in-laws, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She wasn’t perfect, no one is. But she was quite the Matriarch none-the-less and a memorable mentor. Brenda thanked her Mom “…for giving us kids a great life and teaching us enginuity.”

And now in Carol’s own words, she’s “Demure at Last.”

There will be a Celebration of Carol’s Life on September 23rd, at the Little Red School, 1635 Sierra Road East, at 1 p.m.

Service Schedule

Celebration of Her Life

1:00 PM

Saturday September 23, 2023

Little Red School

1635 Sierra Road East

Helena, MT

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