Terence Carlson

Terence Emanuel Carlson was born August 3, 1921, on the family farm below Coronado Heights near Lindsborg to Abel and Ellen (Nilsson) Carlson. He was a lifetime member of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He attended Elvings country school (grades 1-8) and graduated from Lindsborg High School in 1939. Terence attended and graduated from Bethany College in 1943, majoring in math and economics. He started dating Margaret Richards during his college junior year while she was a high school senior.

While attending college, Terence was able to pay most of his college costs by delivering milk and eggs to the college cafeteria. He played football during his sophomore and senior years. Since his father had no use for sports, Terence offered to stay out of football his junior year if his father would buy a tractor for farming. Until that time, they used horses. A tractor was purchased, and he honored his commitment to come home after classes to work in the fields. Then Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941, so Terence went to Kansas City in January to enlist in the Navy program for volunteer officer candidates (V7). On graduation day May 1943, he received his orders to report in two weeks to Notre Dame University for officers’ training.

In September 1943, Terence was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy. He reported to the University of California-Berkeley for diesel engineering school. While there, he proposed to Margaret by letter and mailed the engagement ring to her. 

 In January 1944, he reported to Chicago for his first assignment on the new landing ship tank (LST) 692. The crew was trained on the ship as it sailed down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, ultimately to Norfolk, VA. From there, the ship joined a convoy heading for the Mediterranean. Upon arrival, his ship began to provide supplies between Africa, France and Italy. When his boat would unload at port, the only way to do so was to let it "List", which was to let the boat tip to one side. The boat would sit in the water at an angle and be stable. Carlson, who worked in the engine room, was part of making this maneuver happen.

In April 1945, he received orders to be transferred to the Pacific Theater after first being given a 30-day leave. He headed to Norfolk, VA, where he immediately called Margaret and they set their wedding day for May 8, 1945, in Marquette, KS. They had a short honeymoon and then took the train to San Francisco, CA where they spent a week before he boarded a troop transport ship on August 1, 1945, headed to Okinawa in preparation to invade Japan. Due to Japan’s ultimate surrender, his ship was used to transport Japanese prisoners from Shanghai, China, back to Japan. For several months thereafter, his ship hauled Chinese soldiers of Chiang Kai Shek from Shanghai to Manchuria to fight the communist troops. Finally, he arrived back in the USA just before VE Day, where he was discharged from the Navy in March 1946 as a Lieutenant JG.

Terence & Margaret lived in Lindsborg and bought a 160-acre Bridgeport farm in June, 1946. They moved to Windom, KS, after he signed a contract to teach at the high school for the 1947/1948 school year. He taught math, government, and geography along with assisting as a coach for the six-man football team. At the end of the school year, they moved back to Lindsborg where he began to farm full time with a small dairy, stock cattle, and crops. They moved to the Carlson home place and began to acquire land to farm.

He and Margaret had five daughters and then one son. Throughout his lifetime, he served as a Sunday school teacher and church board member for most of his adult life and enjoyed singing in the church choir and men’s quartet. He sang in the Handel’s Messiah Festival Chorus for several years. He was active in Gideons International and served on the township board, Smoky Valley Cemetery, Farmer’s Coop board and Bethany Home board for many years. He served as president of the Elvings Grade School PTA at various times.

Terence Carlson, 102, passed away on June 30, 2024, just a month short of his 103rd birthday, at Sunflower Terrace Assisted Living, Lindsborg, KS.