Carolyn J. Schenfelt

Carolyn J. Schenfelt, 82, of West Chester, passed away on Friday, April 15, 2022 at Exton Senior Living.  She was the beloved wife of Kenneth Schenfelt, with whom she shared 25 years of marriage.

Born in Philadelphia PA, she was the daughter of the late Charles R. and Elizabeth C. Smith Johnson.

She was a graduate of Radnor High School. Carolyn served in the Air Force and was honorably discharged after 3 years of service and started a family.  She was a very supportive mother and taught her four children to be respectful of others, to enjoy life, to be there for each other, and to be kind to animals. She taught swimming, Life Saving, was a Cub Scout den mother and a Girl Scout leader. 

After the kids were grown she furthered her education by earning a BA and Masters Degree from West Chester University while working full time.

She always loved Bruce's witty humor and was proud of his service in the Air Force as a firefighter and later a jet crew chief.  She was in awe of Mike's passion with animals and was proud of his service in the Air Force as a radiology technician.  She encouraged Susan with academics and sports.  She inspired Bert with music, sports, and school activities. 

She loved her grandchildren and loved spending time playing with them when they were young.  As they grew older she was amazed at how Will learned how to fix things so easily and she was proud of how Jen could play many musical instruments. 

She thoroughly enjoyed classical music and even taught herself to play the piano and cello.  She preferred cold weather and SNOW.  No wonder she loved penguins!!!!  

She LOVED her cats Max, Snowball, Daisy, and especially Bebee (her favorite) and Savannah (her love bug).  Bebee loved being in Carolyn's lap while she sat in a chair.  Bebee was adopted from Forgotten Cats at age 8 and spent the first month under her bed.  After that they were inseparable.  In earlier years she had a Collie named Goldie and later another beautiful Collie named Brandy.  All of the cats and dogs are now with Carolyn in heaven.  Her one remaining cat, Daisy, is living with her husband Ken.

Carolyn and Ken loved photography and traveling.  In 1999 Ken purchased a 21 foot Chinook RV which was used to travel from 1999 to 2014 to many National Parks in the US plus two trips to beautiful Alaska.  In Alaska they took an airplane ride to see Mount McKinley up close and landed on a nearby glacier.  Her favorite park was Bryce Canyon in Utah with the hoodoos.

They also did expeditions from 1999 to 2011 to visit the polar bears and other arctic wildlife (walrus) via the little red ship Explorer (1st expedition ship) to Svalbard (island group 500 miles south of the North Pole).  They did several trips to Svalbard with other ships and later went to beautiful Antarctica to see the many thousand penguins, leopard seal nursing her young, may birds and the most absolutely beautiful scenery.  They also circumnavigated Baffin Island (north of Hudson Bay) on a Russian icebreaker with Bell helicopters to see more bears.

In between the RV and ship expeditions they went to many air shows in Dayton, Ohio, Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, and the Naval Sir Station in Oceania Virginia and many others.  They saw the Blue Angels and the Thunderbird demonstration teams, stealth aircraft B2 and Nighthawk F-117, many superb aerobatic and airplane performances...lots of noise and great photos.

BUT above ALL else, Carolyn had four great kids and their families who LOVED her very much and they LOVED her.  To us her “bucket” list is COMPLETE.

In addition to her husband, Carolyn is survived by her children, Bruce A. Dougherty (Terry), Michael K. Dougherty (Bridgett), Susan J. Dougherty and Roberta “Bert” Bellano (J. Michael); a brother, Richard C. Johnson (Gayle); four grandchildren, Tonya Martinez (Matthew), Levi Fiedler (Megan), William Bellano and Jennifer Bellano and by a great granddaughter, Shayna Villeneuve.

Services will be private with the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to www.forgottencats.org or www.alz.org.

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