Funeral services for Carolyn Ruth Gafford Crear will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Grambling. She was a long-time pharmacist who worked in many facilities in Lincoln, Union, Ouachita and Claiborne parishes, before retiring in New Orleans. She was born on July 24, 1949, in Union Parish, the fourth of seven children and first daughter born to Ardell and Polly Gafford. Because of her father’s military career, she spent much of her early childhood living across the country and around the world. During her teenage years the family settled back in Union Parish, where Carolyn graduated from Westside High School in 1967. She enrolled in Grambling State University, where she pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1971.
