When patients step into the St. Rose Pavilion of The University of Kansas Health System at Great Bend, Carol Keyse is often there to say hello and help direct them to where they need to go. The lifelong Great Bend resident definitely has ties to St. Rose, as the Pavilion is located across the street from the site of the former St. Rose Hospital where Keyse was born in 1960.

Growing up in Great Bend

Keyse is the daughter of Weston and Peggy Stambaugh and has three brothers, Dale, Jerry and Jay Stambaugh. She attended Riley Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High and Great Bend High School, graduating in 1978.

“I was a shy, quiet person in my younger years,” Keyse said. “I was teased throughout my school years but the older I got the more I put myself out there to help people, whether it’s friends, family, or someone I just saw needing help.”

Growing up, she was involved in Camp Fire Girls from first grade through graduation in the 12th grade. The members did volunteer work, helping with community food drives and other projects.

“When we were kids growing up, our vacations were spent going to Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico and Oklahoma,” she recalled.

“My dad’s hobby was rock hunting. This is what we did for our summer vacations,” she said. A photo of the family appeared in the Great Bend Tribune in the early ’70s, showing them with some of the petrified wood and rocks they had found, dug up and hauled down the side of a mountain.

Her father Weston Stambaugh was also featured in the Tribune’s local TV guide for the week of August 18-24, 1979. The guide was called “What’s Going On” and always included a cover story about a local person with an interesting hobby. In this case, the story was about his hobby of polishing the rocks the family members had found and making necklaces, earrings, belt buckles and bolo ties.

“It showed all the equipment he had made himself,” Carol said. “He would help out the Great Bend High School art class that Mr. Jon Hartman taught. When it was jewelry making time in Mr. Hartman’s class, Dad would shape and polish the students’ stones for them so they could get their jewelry done and graded.

“Our summers were adventures with a purpose. All four of us kids would not have traded it for any other vacation. We were together for a full week as a family.” 

Starting a family

She went to work right out of high school, starting at J&J Dist./Orscheln Warehouse, farm and home stores located throughout Kansas and Missouri.

Carol married her husband David Keyse in November of 1987.

“We were married for quite a while before we decided to have children,” she said. “We were blessed with a beautiful daughter Kelci Keyse in 1996.”

She stopped working when their daughter was born, but after three years of being a stay-at-home mom she took a part-time job at the Great Bend Tribune. She placed the weekly grocery store ads and other inserts in the paper, working a few hours in the evenings, three nights a week for about four years.

After leaving the Tribune, she chose another part-time job, working as a hostess at Delgado’s Mexican Restaurant. After Kelci started school it was important that she work part-time so she could stay involved in her daughter’s school and dance activities. 

Carol the caregiver

Keyse continued to work part-time when she found herself in a caregiver position.

“When our dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, Mom and I would get him to and from his treatments. The cancer began to spread through his whole body. Our family lost Dad in 2004 from cancer. Four months after Dad had passed, my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

Keyse finally decided to give herself a break from working to help her mother with her appointments at the cancer center and elsewhere.

“We had all thought she had it beat, but a year later she had cancer again; this time it was in the scar from her first breast removal. Then a year later she had cancer in the other breast. 

“Mom lost her battle with cancer in 2012. I stopped working for a few years until my husband’s brother started to have health problems. I began taking him to his doctor appointments and to the local Walmart to do his shopping. He could not drive because of the health issues he had. His health started to decline and we had to finally put him in the nursing home in 2019, so he could have 24-hour care. He passed away during the COVID-19 breakout.”

After that, she helped a close friend get her mother to doctors’ appointments in other towns when the friend couldn’t take her.

 “I guess helping people out is my way of giving back,” she said. But when the friend and her mother moved away, Keyse decided it was time to take care of herself and her family.

Back to work

“In November 2020, my sister-in-law, Lisa Stambaugh, who had worked for Central Kansas Family Practice (CKFP), then The University of Kansas Health System, called me and said that the health system, formerly known as CKFP, was looking for someone that could work from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,” she said. “The job would be taking patients’ temperatures, making sure they were wearing a mask and asking them questions from a list of COVID-19 symptoms. After they discontinued the screening at the door, I was then asked to go to work in the office, putting files together and other tasks.

“The decision was made for the family medicine clinic on Polk Street to move to St. Rose Medical Pavilion. I was offered the job as Patient Assistant at the front entrance of St. Rose Medical Pavilion and I gladly said yes,” she said.

“I enjoy the job very much. You get to know and help the patients with things they may need — what doctor they are seeing, nurse visit or our X-ray department, Physical Therapy, and Cardiac Rehab, and we also have a Convenient Care Walk-in Clinic. I am there to help the patients and answer questions about our services. If I can’t answer the questions, I find someone that can. I see several community members and I enjoy catching up while I help them out. Also, you get to know the patients by name and a little about their life. It gives them someone to talk to and listen to them.” 

Keyse’s supervisor, Jodi Ledesma, physician clinic operation manager, expressed the hospital’s appreciation for the work she does.

“We are fortunate to have Carol as a part of our team. Both staff and patients appreciate her compassion. She’s an integral member of our team and daily operations,” Ledesma said. 

Hobbies

Outside of her job, Carol and David Keyse love to visit their daughter and her fiancé.

“Traveling to see different places is great but it is always nice to come home,” she said. “We live in a nice neighborhood and have been in the same house for 32 years. 

“My hobbies are sewing, embroidery with the sewing machine. I like to try my hand at different crafts. Sometimes they work out okay and other times it can be a big mess. Pinterest is a great site to get great ideas for crafting as well as sewing projects.”

Carol and David are also members of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, which allows them to travel to barbecue contests throughout Kansas as judges. “We get to taste some chicken, ribs, pork, and my husband’s favorite is brisket. Sometimes it’s really good and other times not so good,” she said. “We also judge the backyard BBQs too. Sometimes there are kids’ BBQs, along with desserts from cookies to cheesecake. The people who participate in the KCBS are serious about the BBQ contests. The cooking, appearance, tenderness and taste are all important. My husband, I and our daughter are all certified KCBS master judges.” 

Community Connections is a regular feature of the Great Bend Tribune, showcasing people who live in the Golden Belt. We welcome readers to submit names of individuals who are active in the community that they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”