Carolyn Crowell Haddock, a retired elementary school guidance counselor who charmed hundreds if not thousands of students with her self-proclaimed Mrs. Pickle persona, has died. The cause was complications from COVID-19 and influenza, her family said.
Haddock’s ability to inspire good work on behalf of education continued even after her retirement in 2011 from Christian County Public Schools. Often that work included entertaining children with pickle-themed lessons about making the best of life in good times and bad.
Her inspiration extended to adults.
That’s why the Christian County Literacy Council made her a board member emeritus, said the council’s executive director, Francene Gilmer.
“People did things just because she asked them,” Gilmer said.
For example, when the literacy council had to decide during the coronavirus pandemic if it would continue with its annual Vidalia onion fundraiser, it all came down to Haddock’s ability to sell those 10-pound boxes to her large network of friends and former colleagues.
“Our willingness to continue was because of her willingness to continue,” said Gilmer.
Retired educator Marti Roberts Lopez said Haddock was widely known among students as Mrs. Pickle. Her offices at Morningside Elementary and later at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary were packed with pickle art, trinkets and books.
The idea of using pickle themes to entertain, educate and connect with students came from a school counselor’s conference she attended in 1993, Haddock told then-New Era reporter Zirconia Alleyne several years ago.
A principal encouraged Haddock to use the “Pickle Packet for Counselors” and soon she saw how the lessons helped her talk about feelings (sweet, sour and a mixture of both) and even appearances (pickles, like people, come in a variety of shapes and sizes).
Pickle fever took over. Haddock eventually had a pickle vanity license plate on her pickle green minivan. Nothing on the road compared to it. The vehicle announced her arrival even before she put it in park.
“She was such a genuine and encouraging person,” said Lopez. “I never heard her say an unkind word about anyone.”
Lopez, a retired elementary school guidance counselor in Christian County whose career overlapped with Haddock’s, said Haddock shared some of the pickle-themed teaching materials with her. But there was only one Mrs. Pickle.
“I knew I never could pull off the pickle bit,” said Lopez, laughing.
Tandy Coatney, a retired school psychologist, said the trust that Haddock built with students was evident in their willingness to open up with her.
“They would just line up at her door,” said Coatney.
Haddock’s husband, Gary Haddock, is the retired Christian County circuit clerk.
In a Facebook announcement posted Monday morning, their daughter, Amy Haddock Thomas, wrote, “In the past few months, Mom has battled COVID as well as recent flu & her tired lungs were just too weak to win. She has certainly put up a fight and for that we are eternally grateful.”
The funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at First Christian Church. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. until the funeral hour.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
