Caro "Mae" (Gilbert) Hollis

Caro Mae Gilbert Hollis, age 90 of Amarillo, passed peacefully in her sleep on August 19, 2022 with her son and daughter-in-law by her side.

The family will receive guests on Thursday, August 25th from 5:00 PM until 6:00 PM at Schooler Funeral Home, 4100 South Georgia.  The funeral will be held on Friday, August 26th at 11:00 AM at Schooler Funeral Home, Brentwood Chapel.  Interment will follow at Llano Cemetery.  Arrangements are by Schooler Funeral Home, 4100 S. Georgia.

Caro “Mae” was born in Childress County, Texas on March 10, 1932 to her parents Thomas and Edna Wortham Gilbert. She was one of nine children growing up on a cotton farm in Hollis, Oklahoma

She kept diaries of daily activities and weather from her early teens on up into her 80's. The family has diaries that date back as far as the early 1950's where she noted the weather of the day and happenings in her life. In 1950, after graduation from high school in Hollis, Oklahoma she went to work as a night telephone switchboard operator for Bell Telephone in Amarillo. Soon after, Mae attended a basketball game in Amarillo and there she would meet Charles Harry Hollis. A handsome young man that caught her attention while he was playing basketball for the Amarillo Fire Department.  The couple were married on December 31, 1951 and were blessed with one son, Neal.

Mae helped form the Amarillo Police Department Ladies Auxiliary when her husband joined the department as a Police Officer and served in various capacities with the Auxiliary, including as its president, during her husband's 33 year career with the department.

Mae loved the outdoors, camping and fishing and took trips every year with her family to Oregon for salmon fishing, Yellowstone for camping and fished at Lake Meredith outside of Amarillo She also had a love for God’s creatures and took care of multiple box turtles that lived in her backyard.  She was given the first turtle, named CiCi, when her husband found it on the side of the road during a walk.  Over the years, other friends and family continued to give her turtles found on roadsides and, at one time, had more than 10 turtles in her yard. She painted letters of the alphabet on the shell of each one in blue nail polish for males and pink nail polish for females to tell them apart.  The original turtle, CiCi, is still alive in her backyard after more than 25 years

She loved to collect curios and figurines including Precious Moments, Hummel Figurines, and a number of pig, frog and turtle figurines and statues.  Two of her prized collections were the crank wall phone used when she lived on a rural farm outside of Hollis, Ok as a child in the early 1940's and the actual butter churn she used as a child on the farm to make butter.

Mae was a consummate homemaker and fantastic cook who loved to host and cook meals for the extended family. She took care of her sister for nearly 10 years, once her sister began experiencing the effects of dementia and Alzheimer's.

She loved life and her family with a passion and took great pride in all their accomplishments.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers, Edward Gilbert, Caewood Gilbert, William Gilbert and Allen Gilbert; her sisters, Ruth Denham and Joyce Pennington; and by her husband Charles.

Mae is survived by her son Neal Hollis and his wife Deb; her brothers, Raymond Gilbert and Lainial Gilbert; one grandson, Joshua Hollis, Capt USMC; and by her five year old great grandson, Charles Hollis.

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