Caralee Alice Thomas, 72, Clinton, formerly of Lincoln, died at 7:40 p.m. March 3, 2012, at Manor Court, Clinton.

A celebration of life service will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Calvert Funeral Home, Clinton, with Mark Angel officiating. Friends may call from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Memorial gifts may be made to the Caralee Alice Thomas Memorial Fund.

Caralee was born Sept. 11, 1939, in Lincoln, the daughter of Arthur Ferguson and Lena Maybelle (Foster) Grigsby. She married Theodore Thomas on May 3, 1973, in Lincoln. He died Sept. 7, 1991.

Survivors include daughters, Tamira Smith-Ryan, Victorville, Calif., and Holly Thomas (Eric Young), Clinton; grandchildren, Jailee and Race Young, and Jack and Patrick Ryan. Also surviving is her beloved cat, Jasper.

She was preceded in death by her parents; grandparents, Leonard Earl and Lena Golden Foster; and one son, Toby Jed Thomas.

Caralee was retired from Wallace Computer Co., Clinton.

“I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one,

I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.

I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,

Of Happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.

I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun

Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.”

Condolences may be e-mailed to www.calvertmemorial.com.