Carole J. Basil

Carole's Mass of Christian Burial will be live-streamed by St. Maron's, on their FaceBook page. You can access Carole's service by visiting: https://stmaron.com/facebook.html .

Carole Jeanne Basil (Fleischhacker) was the fourth of Joseph and Genevieve Fleischhacker’s six children. Born on December 25, 1937 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Carole went on to lead a distinguished life characterized by curiosity, faith, and service to her community and those she loved.

Carole’s persistent curiosity emerged in her childhood. At age four, she fell in love with books, and her mother dispatched her older brother, Bud, to read to her. Tiring of the job, Bud taught his little sister to read on her own, and so Carole entered kindergarten already knowing how to read. Curious Carole woke earlier than the family in the mornings and took to exploring neighborhood houses while the neighbors slept. Once, she released a neighbor’s chickens from their coop, causing her mother to have to retrieve the errant chickens scattered wide and far.

Carole continuously demonstrated her intellectual aptitude as she grew. She won many times as a contestant on Father Coglin’s children’s radio quiz show and attended Washington High School and St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul. A proud polyglot, she learned French, Spanish, and Aramaic—the last so that she could read and understand the language spoken by Christ . Indeed, Carole was a voracious reader her whole life: she never stopped being a student, and it was not odd to find her studying the life of a past president, monarch, or general, or for her to give you a book covering any number of historical, literary, scientific, or culinary topics. She was undefeated for decades in family games of Trivial Pursuit, and she would proudly and consistently finish the New York Times crossword every week in about 20 minutes, only needing an occasional phone call for help with those confounded sports questions.

Carole married the love of her life Edmund in 1959 and started her beautiful family the following year. Edmund’s career took the family to La Jolla, CA, for several years in the late 60s and early 70s, then back to the Twin Cities. Even as she raised four children—Laura, Paul, Daniel, and Matthew—Carole lent her time, passion, and energy to a multitude of endeavors: she was a member of the Minnesota Garden Club; volunteer at the La Jolla and St. Anthony co-ops; her daughter Laura’s Girl Scout troop leader; and active PTA volunteer at her children’s schools. A PTA fundraiser that Carole became known for was the annual book sale, taking thousands of book donations throughout the year and selling them back to the community at a fraction of the cost in order to raise money for schools and educational programs.

After the tragic passing of her husband Edmund in 1979, Carole raised her four children as a single parent with courage, aplomb, and devotion, and she sought to fill her home and share her heart with those in need. She provided a shelter for artists, students, friends, and relatives who struggled or needed a place to stay, some of whom came from as far as Germany and Sweden. Carole was always willing to give generously of what she had, even when it was very little, and expand her family in the process.

This spirit of generosity and service extended to her work in her community. Carole volunteered to help immigrants acclimate to Minnesota during the second wave of Hmong immigration in 1980. She taught Catechism to public school children at St. Odilia Church and was instrumental in helping the Church gain funds and city approval to build a new sanctuary, which still stands today. Her service as a volunteer social worker at the Home of the Good Shepherd in Shoreview provided shelter for young women at risk as she and others helped them towards living sustainable, independent lives. Carole’s 18 years as a lobbyist in the Minnesota State Legislature established her as a great trail blazer and pioneer who paved the path for many women working at the Legislature today.

Carole was president of the Minnesota Beer Wholesalers Association from 1988-2003, and she loved her career family dearly. At her retirement, the Minnesota Beer Wholesalers Association established The Carole Basil Scholarship Foundation to provide financial support for the college-bound children of Carole’s career family, which still awards merit-based scholarships to outstanding young minds each year. Carole herself served as the primary judge of this scholarship until 2015, when she handed the reins to her granddaughter Sarah. Carole took immense delight in reading each scholarship application, and she used the values that shaped her life as guiding principles in the selection process: she ensured that not just the brightest students were awarded, but also the hardest workers, the givers, and the community volunteers.

Carole was active in the Plymouth chapter of Toastmasters International in the years 2012-2014. She was so proud of her speeches and the improvements she made as a public speaker with that organization. She used these abilities after she retired at the Minnesota Beer Wholesaler's Association annual fall meeting, where she was invited to speak every year as a past president. She relished that opportunity to reconnect with her former colleagues and peers, and she absolutely loved her informal title of "The Beer Queen," coined by her members.

For someone who adored stories from a young age, it’s appropriate that Carole’s loved ones remember her fondly by the stories she told and by her patronage of the fine arts. She was always thrilled to hear tales of travel and share her own, as she’d visited Italy, England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Mexico, Canada and Cuba, the place she said she had learned the most about herself, her country, and people. Carole did quite a bit of writing herself, even publishing a cookbook called Beer Belongs in the 1980s—each recipe, of course, included beer. She expressed her passion for singing alongside her faith and had a stint as a member of the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir. Carole and Edmund Basil were charter members and inaugural season ticket holders at the historic Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 1963, and Carole was a proud contributor to PBS and Minnesota Public Radio. She greatly enjoyed the programming on those networks, particularly programs from the BBC like Masterpiece Theater and Downton Abbey in later years. A lifelong gardener, she loved to spend time in nature and with the earth: she even kept one Christmas cactus alive for over 25 years, faithfully tending to it daily and awaiting its annual bloom during the Christmas season.

Even in her final years, Carole served as a member of the Library Committee at Lake Minnetonka Shores. She also tended to the memory care and transitional care residents by reading to them and keeping them company. She could never just be a participant at anything: Carole's natural abilities and predispositions to lead and serve others were a shining testament to her generosity and her intrinsic need to better herself and those around her.

Carole was a loving, caring, and thoughtful daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend; she was so much that cannot be contained in words. Though she was a master of language herself, we have no way of knowing how Carole would pen the ending to her own story if given the chance, but we know she’d focus on the joy rather than the sorrow. She’d focus on faith and love rather than uncertainty and darkness. And perhaps she’d lean on these final resonant images, treasured memories from her family: her teenage patience with her two younger siblings, Tom and Judy, on summer visits to their grandmother in California, entertaining the two of them with beach time and jaunts to the potato chip factory or the comic book exchange; her delighted and sincere laugh, difficult to calm when something tickled her wry sense of humor; and the pride with which she opened—to all sojourners—the family casita in La Jolla, filled with the ethereal garden scents of lemon trees, bougainvillea, and jasmine.

Carole was preceded in death by her husband Edmund, parents Joseph and Genevieve, sisters Genevieve “Tenny” Nowicki and Lois Malone, brother Joseph “Bud” Fleischhacker, and beloved granddaughter Lauren Basil.

Carole is survived by her children Laura (Casey O’Brien), Paul (Susan Daley), Daniel (Lisa Gentry), and Matthew; her grandchildren Nicholas (Hairong Lin) , Sarah, Anna, Alexis, Jacob, and Ellie; brother Thomas Fleischhacker and sister Judith Morrison.

Carole’s viewing will be held at St. Maron’s Catholic Church, 600 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis from 9:45-11:00 followed by the Mass of Christian Burial.  The procession and Interment following mass will lead to Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis.

All are welcome to attend the visitation at St. Maron's Catholic Church. Masks are required by St. Maron's Catholic Church, and we will have to adhere to social distancing during the visitation. Entrance to St. Maron's via the west door will be monitored to ensure that the number of guests in the church is in accordance with the State of Minnesota's 25% capacity guidelines.

Due to current constraints, the family asks that only close friends and relatives attend the funeral mass in the church sanctuary. We welcome all to be outside on the church grounds or in the parking lot live streaming the mass. We will then welcome all to join us in the procession and interment as Hillside Cemetery. We would really like everyone to come to remember Carole, but we want and need to respect the current rules regarding church services. Thank you for your understanding.

The family wishes to thank the medical staff of Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s 4400 and 4500 Unit for their heroic efforts and wonderful, compassionate care for Carole and her family.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Carole Basil Scholarship Foundation c/o Madigan, Dahl & Harlan, P.A. 222 S 9th St Suite 3150, Minneapolis, MN 55402.