Cynthia Carroll

1929 - 2016

Cynthia Carroll

November 3, 1929 - August 20, 2016

Cynthia Carroll passed away on August 20, 2016. Born Cynthia Jane Martin (Cynny or Cyn) in 1929 in Albany, New York, her family moved back to join extended family in Zion, Illinois, before she entered school. She was the youngest of five children and her happy memories of childhood include being nurtured by her older sisters, being taught how to ride a bike and play baseball by her older brother, and evenings spent listening to radio shows and playing cards and board games together. Her several aunts also lived nearby, and she credits Aunt Lucille and Aunt Nita with teaching her the basic skills, patience and discipline in painting, quilting, knitting and crochet-arts which she practiced throughout her life and took to high levels of mastery. To these she added pastel art, wood carving, and jewelry making-those who knew Cynthia remember that she was always creating something of beauty to share with others. She had an outstanding sense of design, color and composition, which came through in all of her works.

Cynthia attended the University of Illinois, where she received her B.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences; then she moved with her best friend Gloria to Berkeley, California, for graduate studies in Anthropology. In 1952 she was hired by the State Department as a Recreation Director and assigned to an Air Force base on the island of Okinawa. Here she made friends with a few English-speaking Okinawans who eagerly opened their homes and shared many insights and practices of their culture with the young anthropologist, whom they called "the blue-eyed geisha." Here in 1955 she met and married her husband, Jay Carroll, who was serving in the Air Force. After his discharge from the Armed Forces, the young couple moved to southern Ohio, where their first son, Mark was born in 1957.

Soon thereafter, the young family .moved to Colorado, where Cynthia's sisters Justine and Judy were settled with their families. Here the rest of the Carroll brood were born: Kathleen, Jeffrey, and Jennifer. These years were filled with unforgettably joyous camping, fishing and holiday gatherings, requiring tents be put up in the back yard to sleep all the many kissing cousins. Also, in her "spare time" Cynthia and her sister Justine earned Master's degrees in Special Education from Colorado State College, an achievement which took both sisters into the work force and their families to California in 1967.Cynthia and Jay had an opportunity to move to Salem, Oregon in 1968, and never regretted it. Cynthia chose to work part-time, off and on, during the years from 1968-1977, while she raised her family and exercised her curiosity in gardening, canning, cheese making, hatching pheasants, and guitar lessons. In 1977 Cynthia and Jay moved into their "dream home," which they had custom built and nestled on the hillside of a 12-acre walnut orchard in the hills above Silverton, Oregon, where they spent the next 10 years tending the orchard and gardens that they created there, keeping chickens and watching the deer, fox, pheasants and other wild neighbors. In this home Cynthia's first grandchild was born.

From 1986 to 1994, Cynthia worked for the State Fire Marshall's office, where she received numerous commendations and touching honors at retirement. She was recognized for her patient, clear oral and written communication style in explaining and consulting business owners on federal laws affecting the proper storage of chemical substances used in production. With children now grown and living independently, Cynthia and Jay moved to Dallas in 1990. Here Cynthia was active in both the Pastel and Quilting clubs, which met in local churches. She also volunteered at the Mission Mill Museum in Salem teaching and consulting in quilting and yarn arts.

Cynthia Jay resided in Salem from 2006 until her passing; Jay passed away in 2012, and Cynthia became part of the Providence Place Senior Community, where she lived surrounded by caring, loving neighbors until her own passing. Cynthia will be especially missed by three families: Mark Carroll and Karen Noonan and Karen's son Bill, who reside in Salem; Jennifer (Carroll/Wood) and John Julkowski of Oregon City; and Kathleen (Carroll) and Eugene Kuftin of Salem; as well as three grandchildren: Vitalii and Ivan Bugakov and Allyssa Wood.