Mary Carter Carroll Ziegler

FUNERAL HOME

Hill & Wood Funeral Service - Charlottesville

201 N. First Street

Charlottesville, Virginia

Mary Ziegler Obituary

Mary Carter Carroll Ziegler (Carter) of Charlottesville, Va. died on February 6, 2024.

Born in 1932, Carter was the youngest child of Nina (Ryan) and Philip Acosta Carroll. She grew up in New York City and in Maryland. She graduated from the Chapin School, and in 1954 married John Ziegler. She raised her three children in New York and Boston. In 1983 she moved to Virginia, first to Free Union and then to University Village in Charlottesville where she made many friends and was an active member of the community.

Her three great loves were art, literature and gardens. She was an accomplished artist with a bold sense of color who generously supported local artists and volunteered her time teaching art. Her knowledge of literature was extensive, as was her collection of books, especially illustrated children's books. Above all, she loved being in the country, visiting the mountains and designing and cultivating the garden at her house in Nelson County.

She was also widely-traveled and stayed in touch with her extended family in France and England. Her grandchildren remember her for her wonderful stories and her great sense of style. A devout Catholic, she supported her local church and reached out generously to those in need. Finally - and to the end - she was fiercely independent and self-assured. Her courage in facing difficulties in her life was an inspiration to those who knew her.

Carter is survived by her three daughters, Natalie, Jessica and Sophie Ziegler, by five grandchildren (Alexandra and John Christian Zirschky, Catherine Lucey, and Reed and Simon Schwartz), a great grandchild, and by nieces, nephews and grand-nieces and nephews, all of whom greatly miss her. She was predeceased by her brothers, Philip and John Lee (Shawn). Her ex-husband, John Ziegler, died in 2021.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that any memorial donations or contributions be made to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art or The McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville VA.

Condolences may be shared at www.hillandwood.com.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Daily Progress on Feb. 13, 2024.

Memories and Condolences
for Mary Ziegler

3 Entries

Janet Frye

February 22, 2024

May God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow.

Kimberley

February 13, 2024

I'm sorry to here about Mrs Zeigler passing. Myself and two other co workers clean her house from Busy Brooms. Sending prayers to your family. Kimberley.

Tom Walsh

February 12, 2024

I met Carter when we took a painting class together at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Both my wife, Vidu, and I attended this class along with Carter, who was very good, especially at still life paintings. Vidu and I were both throwing ourselves whole-heartedly into art and became very committed to oil painting. I´m not sure exactly how our friendship with Carter blossomed but it´s easy to see how it could as we chatted side-by-side in the classroom. It became clear early on that we were all avid gardeners as well. At home during this time, Vidu and I shared a small bedroom as a studio in our Charlottesville home. It was very cramped and dark and so we were looking to alternatives that would provide us with a better studio. We had some additional special needs and ultimately decided that we would have to build a new house to meet all the needs we had. Here, again, we had a connection to Carter, as she was building a house with a studio in Nelson County. She invited us to see it and also shared with us her architect and builder. We used the same architect and builder on our new house in Greene County. We were in a bind when we sold our house in Charlottesville and had to move out, but our new house in Greene wasn´t quite ready. Carter stepped in and managed to reserve a room for us at University Village for a short time. It was very kind, really helped us out, and she would not accept any payment. She did allow, however, that I could help her with her computer (my employment career had been in computers).
Soon Vidu and I were able to move into our new house, but shortly after this, Vidu was diagnosed with Leukemia - it spread aggressively, and she passed away only 6 months later.
I stayed in touch with Carter and for the next decade and a half, I would come to her home at University Village on an almost weekly basis. I helped her with first her laptop, then a cell phone, then an iPhone, then her iPad, and then later versions of these things. She would serve me tea and cookies and we would also talk about whatever came up. I was impressed with the way that she served tea, always loose tea, always warming the teapot in the oven first, and having a separate pot of hot water to dilute the tea if it became too strong. My wife Vidu was from India and had a similar passion for good tea, properly served, and I´ve also been passionate about good tea ever since. My technical help to Carter varied and sometimes it seemed like I was explaining the same things over multiple times, but she would always exclaim anew when I showed her something and would take notes to be able to duplicate it. The digital technology did not come easily to her, but she was intensely curious and wanted to learn and become competent and comfortable with everything. She peppered me with questions about Blogs, Twitter, Instagram, viruses, everything. But even while using new technology, she brought her own charm to it, insisting, for example, on formatting emails the same way she would write a letter, with proper indentations of new paragraphs, etc.
But most of our time, during visits to her home in University Village and, occasionally, a visit to her house in Nelson County, we talked about books, local news, politics, art, literature, gardening, anything and everything that might come up. Frequently, she gave me books to donate to the library where I worked (and still do) in Greene County. A couple of times she gave me a plant that she had ordered but then wasn´t going to use. I still have those growing in my landscape. I collected Cosmos seeds, an annual flower, for her to plant each spring. I was a Master Gardener, so she often asked about different problem areas and what to do. Sometimes she took my advice sometimes not. We shared our garden experiences and frustrations, and triumphs, too. We often talked about books and she would express mild shock and give me a chastising frown when I wasn´t familiar with an author I should have known.
In the last several years, I hadn´t seen Carter often. The pandemic hit and we all isolated, and I still don´t mix like I used to. We met a few times after things eased somewhat, but Carter had been experiencing some health issues, too, and so we held off. A few times we set up a visit, but sometimes these were postponed too. So we met only rarely the last couple of years, and our connections were more on the phone. This hiatus always felt temporary, though, like there was just a hump to get over and then we could resume our visits.
Carter and I came from different backgrounds (I grew up in inner city Chicago), but we connected on so many levels. I truly enjoyed our friendship. And I feel safe to say, she did too. She was a strong consistent friend during most of my life here in the Charlottesville area. Although we had acquaintances, friends, associates, in common, my friendship with her was unknown to most everyone in the rest of my life, as I suspect I was unknown to the rest of her world. It´s like we had this little bubble that we came to and experienced something very special inside it. I will miss her immensely. I am only grateful that I did tell her how much the friendship meant to me.
Tom

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