Carol Talbot Gaddy Graywing (née Carol Ann Gray) died at age 77 on September 13, 2018, in Kirkland, Washington, following months of declining health.
Carol was a passionate second-wave feminist who devoted her life to articulating and advancing justice for women and promoting their spiritual growth.
In the 1970's and 1980's, Carol resided in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was a political activist and leader in the women's rights movement. A prolific writer, speaker, and organizer of conferences and events--such as the periodic lampooning of the Arkansas Legislature in the "The Keep 'Em Barefoot and Pregnant Awards" by the Arkansas Women's Political Caucus--Carol's many contributions to the advancement of equal rights for women are detailed in Horizons: 100 Arkansas Women of Achievement (1980, Rose Publishing), and her personal and professional papers are archived at the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture.
For a half-century, Carol also served as a lay leader in the Unitarian Universalist Church. Nationally, she served as Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the UU Women's Federation. Regionally, she served on the Board of Trustees of the 5-state Southwest UU Conference. Locally, she twice served as President of the Board of Trustees of the UU Church of Little Rock and also on pulpit, membership, and worship committees at UUCLR and several other UU congregations, including: Eureka UU Fellowship of Eureka Springs, Arkansas; First Unitarian Church of Oakland, California; All Souls UU Church of Shreveport, Louisiana; and Shoreline UU Church of Seattle, Washington.
Carol was born October 21, 1940, in Norman, Oklahoma, the only child of Colleen Collins Gray and James W. Gray, Jr. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and Carol was raised by her paternal grandparents, Bess Rose Gray and James W. Gray, Sr. in Norman, while her father was deployed by the Army Air Corps to the China-Burma-India Theater, and her mother worked as a "Rosie the Riveter" at Douglas Aircraft during World War II. At age 13, Carol moved to California to live with her mother and stepfather, Col. Ralph Talbot III, who adopted her.
Carol attended high school in Uruguay, while her stepfather was stationed by the US Army at the Presidio of Montevideo, and earned her secondary diploma in Bilingual Liberal Arts with Honors from Crandon Institute. After returning to the US, Carol briefly attended San Francisco State College (now University) in her late teens before discontinuing her studies to work full time. She later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with Honors from the University of Oklahoma, as a returning student in her late forties, and then earned a Master of Arts in Spirituality from Holy Names College in Oakland, California.
Carol was married to William D. Gaddy from 1962 to 1982; their only child, daughter Lauren was born in 1965. After divorce and empty nest, Carol changed her surname to Graywing and relocated to California to attend graduate school.
Carol Talbot's professional career began in 1959 as a credit interviewer for Sears, Roebuck and Company in San Francisco. After taking a 6-year hiatus to have a baby and relocate 5 times with her then-Army-officer husband, Carol Gaddy returned to the workforce in 1970 as a career counselor in the women's division of the American Employment Agency in Little Rock. For most of the 1970's, Carol Gaddy served as Education Director of the Arkansas Arts Council, where she developed and supervised the statewide Artist-in-the-Schools program, to bring art education and artists-in-residencies into underserved classrooms in rural areas, and she received a National Endowment for the Arts scholarship to complete an arts administration program at Harvard University. In the 1980's Carol Gaddy served as Education Coordinator for the Arkansas Energy Department, where she developed energy conservation programs and curriculum for corporations and schools. In the 1990's and early 2000's, Carol Graywing worked in not-for-profit administration in the East Bay Area of California, first for the Center for Psychological Studies in Berkeley and later for Conciliation Forums of Oakland.
After retiring in 2006, Carol relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana to serve as caregiver during her mother's long decline due to Alzheimer's. In 2016, Carol relocated again to Seattle, Washington to be closer to her family.
Carol is survived by her daughter Lauren D. Gaddy, son-in-law Howard B. Gefen, and grandson Jackson Gaddy Gefen of Kirkland, Washington; her stepbrother Ralph Talbot IV and sister-in-law Betty Talbot of San Antonio, Texas; and her stepmother Maria Gallardes Gray of Vinita, Oklahoma.
The family would like to thank Gabriela Bureriu of Gentle Senior Care Adult Family Home in Bothell, Washington for her compassionate care in Carol's final months.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial donations be made to the National Women's Political Caucus (nwpc.org), Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation (uuwf.org), or any of the local UU congregations that Carol called home.
