Our beloved co-founder and Board Member Emeritus Carolyn Melvin passed away on June 5, 2022. She will be remembered for her spirited right-left-right shenanigans at our holiday parties, her sense of humor, and her friendship. We are planning a gathering in early August to share fond memories.
Carolyn co-founded what was then known as Sisters in Crime Columbus Ohio in 2008 and served in all officer capacities during her tenure.
You can read Carolyn’s obituary here. Carolyn Shaffer Melvin Obituary – The Columbus Dispatch. Memories can also be shared below via the comment section.
From Board member Connie Berry: Carolyn loved learning and attended as many classes and conferences as she could fit into her always-crowded schedule. Over the years, we roomed together at Malice Domestic, Crime Bake, Sleuthfest, and Killer Nashville. She was a great “den mother,” keeping me on track and headed in the right direction. I will always remember her intelligence, organizational skills, and calm confidence that things would probably work out fine in the end. I will miss her.
Carolyn was a wonderful person and will be greatly missed. She, along with other founding members of SICCO, created one of the best writers group I have ever been in. Prayers for John.
For those who don’t know, years ago I gave rap names to all the board members . . . don’t ask why. Carolyn’s name was ‘Sweet Mama C,’ which was later shortened to ‘Sweet Mama.’ And it stuck. It fit her, and I think she reveled in it a bit (even signing off on emails as ‘Sweet Mama’). Although she didn’t have children, Carolyn had people around her that she viewed as her own; nieces and nephews, friends and neighbors, recipients of a college scholarship program she was deeply involved in, and amazingly, us. The following is from a sympathy card I sent to Carolyn and her husband John, which best expresses my final thoughts:
‘Carolyn: in the eleven or so years I’ve known you, you’ve been nothing but intelligent, wise, kind, funny, wickedly wry, endlessly patient, ridiculously dependable, a doer, a warrior for what’s right, a crusader at cutting through the shit, a good liar and a better friend. You write stories without ends, tease us with your cursed Right/Left commands, and know every damn mystery author on the planet. You are what happens when two plus two equals five, when mass times acceleration equals a lemon meringue pie to the face, and when rock finally beats paper. You are a rock, you rock, and rock on Sweet Mama.’