Jean’s Early Years and Arrival at Wake Forest
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Jean Carolyn Sholar was the daughter of Robert Euel Sholar and Emma Goebel Cox Sholar. She was born in Cadiz, Kentucky, which is in the southwestern part of the state. She was the fifth of seven children and the youngest of the three girls.
Jean’s family moved to Hopkinsville, KY, when she was in elementary school. She was valedictorian of Hopkinsville High School, editor of the high school yearbook, and a member of the National Honor Society. She then attended Bethel Woman’s College where she was Phi Theta Kappa president.
She met Ed in the cafeteria line, where she worked, and they soon began to date.
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LISTEN to the story of their meeting Salemtowne StoryLine CD
They were married on December 23, 1952.
Jean wrote about the old campus in her notes for the Class of 1951 Reunion Directory, from Homecoming 2001: “My memories of the ‘old’ campus include the bell ringing after athletic victories, the tradition of speaking to everyone, magnolia trees covering the campus, the rock wall, brick walkways which ruined all high-heeled shoes, meeting my husband, and living in ‘new’ Johnson Dorm with wonderful hallmates and housemother Ma Overby. Wake Forest professors who have been very influential were Roland Gay, K.T. Raynor, David Smiley, Henry Stroupe, Howell Smith, and Sterling Boyd.”
Jean had a distinguished school career of her own. She graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a BA. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board, and she was inducted into the honor society Tassels “in recognition of her outstanding attainments in Scholarship, Leadership, and Character at Wake Forest College.”
After Wake Forest, Jean went on to graduate school at Duke University and was awarded a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) on September 2, 1957 (when baby Carolyn was four months old!). She taught mathematics at high schools in Spring Hope, Bunn, and Youngsville, near to the town of Wake Forest.
Ed and Jean were members of the Wake Forest Baptist Church in Wake Forest, and they were organizing members of the Wake Forest Baptist on the campus in Winston-Salem.
Jean’s greatest love was to be the mother of two daughters, Carolyn Jo Christman and Kimberly Jean Christman, and even more so to become a grandmother in 2003 to Francisco Christman Shehee.
Jean was an active member of the Wake Forest community as a leader of the Faculty Wives Club and and of the Wake Forest Baptist Church mission group. She was a literacy volunteer in the Winston-Salem public schools, and she also tutored many children and adults in reading, writing, and mathematics, setting up her ‘school room’ on the dining room table.
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