Carol Ann Rafferty Mote

Carol Rafferty Mote died on February 10, 2024 with her daughter and her grandsons at her side. She was a beautiful person and a loving mother, wife, grandmother, and a very talented singer. She was born on June 9, 1937 in Ontario, Canada. At the age of nine, Carol and her family moved to Portland Oregon. Two years later she began a year’s contract singing on a Portland radio program called “Stars of Tomorrow.” At age fourteen she won a scholarship to attend St. Mary’s Academy. She returned to Ontario after high school and continued her vocal and piano studies in Toronto, Ontario at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She worked for the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and continued to sing throughout her life

Carol followed her mother back to Portland, Oregon in 1979 where she worked for International Paper, sang in the chorus of the Portland Opera, reconnected with her childhood best friend Becky Thorstad, and formed new friendships that lasted the rest of her lifetime, especially her friendship with Helen Hames. Carol met and fell in love with David Mote and they married in 1991. They shared a great love of music and family together. Their senior years were busy entertaining friends, traveling, and spending time with their adult children and their grandchildren. David Mote died in 2018 after their nearly 30 year marriage. She remembered him until the end of her life.

Carol is predeceased by her adored son David Cole in 2012. She and David, a talented classical guitarist, also shared a love of music and travel and performed together in both Ontario and Oregon.

Carol is deeply missed by her daughter Jennifer (Jenny) Cole, grandsons Jonathan (Erin Sackett) and Gabriel Small, step-daughters Jennifer Mote Graber (Charles), and Stephanie Gilbert (Greg) and her children Garrett and Griffin Gilbert. Carol lived the last five years of her life in Klamath Falls at Crystal Terrace Memory Care close to Jenny where she was deeply cared for. We are grateful to the loving staff at Crystal Terrace and for the enormous support and comfort provided to Carol and Jenny by Klamath Hospice.