Ken CARTON

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CARTON: Ken Leon Carton of Brandon, Manitoba passed away at the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Saturday, September 9, 2017. He leaves to mourn his wife of 37 years Valerie, daughter Kristy (Carton) Soholt (Kacey) and their children Aiden Liston, Parker and Brody Soholt, son Kolby Carton (Pam MacDearmid) and their daughter June Carton, sister Dianne Labay (Wayne), father-in-law Ken Clark, sister-in-law Gail Smith (Wayne), sister-in-law Wanda Clark, nieces Cory, Whitney, Brenda and nephew Darren along with their spouses and children. Ken was predeceased by his parents Byron and Barbara Carton and niece Stacie Labay. Ken was born in Regina, Saskatchewan on December 20, 1946. With his parents and his sister Dianne, he moved to many parts of Canada and to Germany as his father was in the military. He always said that he enjoyed moving and meeting new friends and having new experiences. The family settled in Brandon, Manitoba when Ken was in high school. After high school, Ken took psych nursing at the Brandon Mental Hospital. After just one year he was offered a job at Manitoba Hydro that he felt he just couldn’t refuse. Ken became a power engineer at the Manitoba Hydro Generating station. He worked there for over 30 years until he retired in 2002. Ken had many interests so it wasn’t hard for him to find things to do in his so called retirement. He taught power engineering at ACC. He did contracting for construction jobs. He became a manager of an over 35 age hockey team. He started to work casual for the Manitoba government at the ACC/Brandon Mental Health grounds. It was not long before he became full time. Ken and Valerie started dating in November of 1974. They married on September 13, 1980 in the house that Ken spent two years building on the Grand Valley Road with the help of family and friends. Their first child Kristy was born in September 1982. Their second child Kolby was born in September 1984. Ken was very involved in the school functions, starting a parent group at Fleming school, organizing school lunches and school barbeques. He also liked to be involved in the kids’ sports by both coaching and managing teams. Ken liked to reminisce about the good times that we had with the teams; going on team trips for tournaments, having get togethers with the kids and parents. When picking teams, it was always more important to Ken to pick good parents and kids over ability. We still have good friends that we met through ball and hockey years ago. Ken always seemed to know something about everything; how to build it, fix it, cook it or who to ask. Ken had a great ability to negotiate a deal and loved every minute of it. Ken always enjoyed carpentry and had learned a lot after building his house and helping build others. When Kristy bought a house in Minot that needed to be gutted and rebuilt, he jumped into action with ideas and help. He brought friends down to Minot to help as well. Then a few years later Kolby bought a house just a mile down the road from his parents. Ken again was there with ideas and help to rebuild. He very much enjoyed working on these and many other projects. Ken also enjoyed camping and travelling. The family travelled every summer and spent many weekends up at Clear Lake. In 1996, Ken and Val bought a cabin at Clear Lake when it seemed that the kids no longer wanted to travel. There were many good times at that lake with family and friends. Card games were always a must. Ken and Valerie also had many great holidays with friends to places such as Maui, a Hawaiian Cruise, Jamaica, the Florida Keys, Bahamas, Victoria, Tofino, and the Maritimes. Ken enjoyed spending time with family and friends. He loved to cook, to go out with friends to dine, and he especially loved to play cards. Ken had a special place in his heart for his grandchildren. Kristy and her husband Kacey have three boys, Aiden, Parker and Brody. Ken looked forward to going to Minot to see the boys or having them visit at Brandon or at the lake. One of Ken’s favorite things was to take them to movies whenever he was down in Minot. The boys also spent time watching documentaries or shows such as How it’s Made on TV. Somehow it wasn’t so bad if it meant watching it with Grandpa! Kolby and Pam had a little girl named June this past June. Ken loved to get visits from June. It always brightened his day. Ken was larger than life. He was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, in-law, friend and co-worker. He touched so many lives over the years and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. A private funeral was held on September 16, 2017. We would like to thank Linda Clark for officiating the service. Also a thank you to Kolby Carton, Brenda (Smith) Payne, George and Judy MacKay for sharing memories. We would also like to thank the staff at Palliative Care in the Assiniboine Center for their great care and support. It meant so much. Also thank you to all of those who visited Ken in the hospital and sent cards and messages after his passing.Messages of condolence may be placed at www.brockiedonovan.com

As published in Brandon Sun on Dec 30, 2017