Valerie L Carmody

Val Carmody, 61, Pipestone, died peacefully Thursday, September 28, 2023 at Pipestone County Hospice House in Pipestone after beating the odds for many years.

Valerie Lynn Spicer was born March 23, 1962, in Marshall, Minnesota, the daughter of Albert “Gene” Spicer and Mary Ann (Woodley) Spicer. Soon after she was born, Val moved to Pipestone and graduated from Pipestone High School in 1980. After graduation, Val attended Granite Falls Area Vocational Technical Institute and earned an optometry assistant diploma. Val married and moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where she began working at an eye clinic. She later moved to Cambridge, Minnesota, where she had two sons, and then to Chaska, Minnesota, where she had a daughter, before returning to Pipestone in 1991. Val was a full-time mother before working for many years as a secretary in the school counselor’s office at Pipestone Area Schools. She retired in 2017 due to her health.

Val especially loved being a school employee because she made and worked with many friends. She went out of her way to support students who had few other advocates, especially those with special needs or had disciplinary issues in school. Val made a point to encourage these students and help celebrate their accomplishments because, as she described, “someone has to have their back.” After retiring, Val enjoyed receiving updates on these students and recalling stories about them, and she was proud to have played a positive role in their lives.

Val was also a known prankster. She regularly recounted stories about conspiring with school coworkers to play practical jokes on unsuspecting (and suspecting) teachers. Her children were often skeptical of gifts from her, worrying she had hidden a package of unpopular microwave popcorn inside. But Val really enjoyed it when the tables turned and she was the target of an unexpected prank.

Most of all, Val loved to laugh and found humor in most anything, especially her favorite sitcom (Big Bang Theory) or action movies (Predator or The Expendables), her grandchildren’s antics, and, particularly, the sarcastic remarks she came up with herself and told to friends and family. Even as life became more difficult near the end, Val always found a way to laugh along with her children, who all got their senses of humor from her.