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Carletta Jo (Shaw) Zelenka, 81, passed away on January 18, 2022, surrounded by her loving son and granddaughters. Carletta was born on April 5, 1940, to Joseph Carl Shaw and Eula Ree (Bratcher) Shaw in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Carletta loved being “Meemaw,” singing songs to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, crafting, reading, and doing word searches. She looked forward to visiting with family and friends, waiting to hear the latest news of everyone’s lives, celebrating their moments of joy and success. Carletta found friendship and connection in her church community while she lived in Sunfield, MI, where she worshiped for many years, and was an active member of the Red Hat Society, which furnished many fun stories to share with her family. Carletta is preceded in death by her parents, spouses, sister (Phyllis Warden), and daughter. Carletta’s first husband, Robert Gaston of Hiawatha, KS, passed away unexpectedly in November 1968. Carletta, a widowed mother of two young children, remarried Harold Roy Zelenka in May 1969, and lived in Lake Odessa, MI, until Harold passed away in 2010. Carletta’s daughter, Stacey Ann Gaston, passed away tragically in October 1978 in Lake Odessa, MI. Carletta is survived by her son, Robert Gaston, and his wife, Dawn Gaston, of Battle Creek, MI; Grandchildren Allyson (Gaston) and Mark Szymanski, and Bethany (Gaston) and Jei Thorpe of Kalamazoo, MI; honorary grandson, Antonio Velasco-Garcia of Battle Creek, MI; and nieces, nephews and great-nephews, and their families. Carletta cherished her great-grandchildren Coral and Robert Velasco-Garcia and Violet Szymanski. Carletta loved nothing more than being a mother, grandmother, aunt, and friend, and will be greatly missed.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to METAvivor, an organization that supports metastatic breast cancer research, a cause close to Carletta's heart.
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