Carolyn Ann Friendship was born on August 8, 1952, to Theren and Ethel Hamm. Carolyn is the 10th of 11 children born into this union. She was preceded in death by Theren and Ethel Hamm, and stepfather William Kennedy, siblings Frankie Hamm, Margaret (Tina) Wilson, Ollie Swan, Alfreda Green, Truman, Ronnie, Larry and Angelo Hamm. Surviving siblings are Theren Hamm (TJ)Jr. (wife Willie), and Shirley Wolf (husband Jim).She is also survived by her husband Stanley, brothers-in-laws Bill Wilson (wife Margaret), Turner Friendship, Chris Williams(wife Keisha), and Carl Dwayne, sisters-in-law, Carolyn and Dawn Woodson (husband Eric), daughter Filesha, threegranddaughters Jamila, Kyla and LaNeese Cramer, and a host of nieces, nephews and great nieces andnephews who are like grandchildren and friends.
Carolyn was baptized at an early age at Calvary Baptist Church in Spokane WA and has been a devoted Christian all her life. Carolyn loved God and showed that in the way she treated everyone. She grew up inSpokane WA, attending Grant Elementary school, and graduated from Lewis & Clark High School.Shortly after graduating from high school Carolyn attended Eastern Washington State University and continued her education at West Seattle Community College, and the University of Washington. She then completed the Microsoft Software Product Management Certification Program.
In 1971 Carolyn married her high school sweetheart Stanley Friendship and through this union they had one child, Filesha. Filesha gave them three beautiful granddaughters: Jamila, Kyla and LaNeese. Carolyn was a devoted Christian. She joined Peoples Institutional Baptist Church a few years after our daughter. It was at the church where she served God in numerous roles like singing in several choirs; becoming a faithful Deaconess visiting the sick and shut- in with her husband continuing to praise God.
Carolyn was a true techie at heart. She was constantly looking for better opportunities and was an avid learner. When our family moved to Seattle from Spokane, she worked at Rainer/Security Pacific Bank (KeyBank) and worked her way up from a vault clerk to a senior methods analyst. She later left KeyBank to travel to Baltimore with her husband. When they returned to Seattle, she went to work at Seattle Vocational Technical Institute (SVI) as lead instructor over an extremely successful Business Computer Training Program. She taught one of SVI’s first all Native American computer classes. She was so proud of the accelerated rate of students that completed the courses. Carolyn went to work with a friend she met at HelpNet and that was her introduction to building, installing and repairing IBM computer systems. She then moved onto Nordstrom as a technical support person. After a couple of years, she became a team leader for their help desk. That experience allowed her to work for Attachmate (a computer software company), as a project manager for several years. She did contract work for Microsoft and other companies prior to retiring. Her retirement brought her to Peoples Institutional Baptist Church as their accountant. She loved providing technical support along with all other needs that required her expertise.
Carolyn treasured her family and took tremendous pride in the success of her daughter, granddaughters,nieces, nephews, as well as the great nieces and nephews. She was an avid supporter of the Renton Black Parents Association while Filesha attended high school. She was an active and foundingmember of The United Financial Family, which was an Afro-American investment group made up of like-minded friends to gain knowledge on investments through research and presentations to each other. The group also assisted local artists in selling their paintings by sponsoring Art Affairs buying events.
She loved playing tennis, skiing, and swimming. However, her greatest love was travel and she wouldresearch different places to go with a faithful group of friends. Because of her, Stanley saw most of theCaribbean islands, Mexico, Barcelona, Spain, London, England and the Grand Canary Islands. The most moving trip was three weeks in South Africa cruising up to Mombasa Kenya. This year the group was planning to take a river cruise, just after the Olympic Games, starting in Paris and then traveling to various parts of France.
Carolyn leaves to mourn a host of nieces, great nieces, nephews, great nephews, cousins and manylong-time friends. She was a very giving and loving person. However, she didn’t hesitate to tell you abouther opinion on things. Carolyn worked very hard but also loved to play equally hard.
She fought an amazing battle with cancer, and through all of the pain she always stayed positive and faithful. She was a true, strong black woman.
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