Ralph Carson, known as “Ike,” was born November 7, 1934. He grew up the 8th child of Harold and Hattie Pearl Carson; a family of 9 children in the small mining town of Bergholz in Jefferson County, Ohio. His dad decided he liked the name “Ike,” and the name stuck.
Ike was an independent spirit from the start, buying his first car, a second-hand Model T Ford, at age 14. He and his father fixed up the car and he learned to drive and mastered the mining and logging roads around town. It was the start of a love affair with cars and driving that would last a lifetime.
Ike’s first job was a paperboy delivering the Steubenville paper to everyone in Bergholz. His second was nailing wooden pallets in a box factory while he was still in school. Later he drove a semi hauling wood and brick for his brother-in-law Ellis George; next he took a job on a pipeline in Cleveland – but was let go as soon as the foreman found out he was not yet 21.
In the summer of 1956, Ike returned from a trip to Florida and was invited to join friends at a popular dance pavilion in Zoar, Ohio. There he met 20-year-old Juanita Provan who had come to the dance with friends from New Philadelphia. Ike asked Juanita to dance; after one dance, he vowed to his friends that he would marry her. He drove his brand new 1955 Ford Crown Victoria (snowshoe white and buckskin brown) the 45 miles from Bergholz to New Philadelphia a couple times each week to court Juanita.
Meanwhile, Uncle Sam intervened; in the summer of 1957, Ike was drafted into the U.S. Army; he had basic training at Fort Knox and was stationed at Fort Myer (now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall) next to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where he drove, maintained and fired tanks and participated in military parades for dignitaries and visitors each Sunday.
On October 25, 1958, Ike and Juanita married at the First Presbyterian Church in New Philadelphia, Ohio. They honeymooned in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ike finished his tour of duty in the Army and in August 1959 they welcomed their first son Scott. Daughter Cathy followed almost exactly two years later in August 1961, and their little brother Brian in 1963. Daughter Caren arrived in 1968.
Ike applied to the Ohio State Patrol Academy, was accepted and graduated in 1959; his first post was Circleville, and he served as a state patrol officer from 1959 to 1970. In addition to accident investigations, monitoring violations and assisting motorists, Ike also inspected school buses and administered driver tests. He sometimes served on honor details for dignitaries like Governor Rhodes and celebrities like Bob Hope. He also was part of the law enforcement escort provided to Astronaut John Glenn and his wife Annie during their triumphant homecoming in New Concord, Ohio following his historic earth orbit aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.
Ike left the Ohio State Patrol in 1970 to become an investigator for United Telephone in Warren, Ohio and the family moved to nearby Salem. Eventually Ike was promoted to Director of Investigations for United, and the family soon moved to Shelby, Ohio. Ike retired from United (then Sprint) in 1996, but he always enjoyed driving and became a part-time driver for a local auto dealer, delivering or picking up cars from as far as Detroit. Ike enjoyed the time on the road, as he had when he was a state patrolman years before.
Ike’s favorite job was Grandpa; he was a storyteller and a humorist who enjoyed reading, playing checkers and chess (he never let anyone win), teaching woodworking, how to finish a job, and just spending time with his seven grandchildren, Andrew (Kelsey) Carson, Derek Carson, Aaron Carson, Sophia Carson, and Jordann, Jackie and Carson Garrett. He taught them his love of “old fashioned” music, introducing each of them to the joys of Lawrence Welk and showing them how to waltz. In recent years he was proud to be the great-grandfather of two grandsons: Benny, 2 years old, and Cameron, born in October 2021. Today, his grandchildren remember him as loving and funny, a person of integrity who taught them to work hard for what they wanted and to be proud of their accomplishments.
Ike had six brothers and sisters: Mary Lois Banfield of Culver, IN and Bertha Dill of Charleston, SC, both of whom survive him. He was preceded in death by his parents and six siblings: Lela George, Martha Christen, Betty Moore, Sarah Haney, Alice Thomas, and Richard (Dick) Carson.
Calling hours will be held at the Barkdull Funeral Home & Crematory on Thursday, February 9, 2023, from 4:00PM-6:00PM. A memorial service will immediately follow with Pastor James Robinson officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute at The Ohio State University.
On-line condolences may be made at www.barkdullfuneralhome.com.
Funeral home : Barkdull Funeral Home & Crematory
