Carolyn Ayers Carbon

Carolyn Ayers Carbon (nee Shry) was born in Chicago on April 2, 1935, and passed on February 24, 2026. She was the oldest child of John and Verna Shry (nee Ayers). Her brother, Roger (Loleta) Shry (1937-2024), arrived two years later. She grew up on Beacon Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, just blocks from where her parents met at the Aragon Ballroom. The family lived there during the Depression, World War II, and post-war America, until 1952, when her parents picked out a lot and built a new home in Skokie, a northern suburb of Chicago. She finished high school there.

She attended Purdue University, where she met her husband, Donald Carbon (1934-1996), late in their senior year. Their first date was to the Elvis Presley movie, Love Me Tender. Despite Carolyn not being a fan of Elvis, the relationship thrived, and the two married shortly after college in 1957.

Carolyn and Don moved to Germany for Don’s Army deployment. In 1958, they welcomed their first child, Steven Lee. Back in Chicago, they grew their family with Randall Scott in 1959, Suzanne Stacy in 1963, Gary Alan in 1966, and a parade of cats.

She balanced the demands of raising four children, managing a household, and working while occasionally relocating for Don’s insurance work. They built new lives in the heat of Florida, the cold of Wisconsin, and the air conditioning of Georgia and North Carolina, settling in Raleigh in 1982. Now rooted, she worked for 11 years in the administration offices of the North Carolina School for the Blind, retiring in 2000. In her retirement, she traveled and spent time with her family, especially her grandchildren, Steve and Rita’s daughter Ana (Boris), and Suzanne and Paul Schneider’s daughters Christine (Logan) and Katherine.

Carolyn was a quiet and thoughtful person who enjoyed reading, music, movies, and TV, preferring comedies, science fiction, horror/suspense, and celebrity gossip. For many years, she enjoyed taking cruises with her family and occasionally playing the slots.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Don, and her brother, Roger. She is survived by her children, Steve (Rita), Randy, Suzanne (Paul), and Gary (Suzanne), three grandchildren, and great-grandchild Mason.

She was loved. She will be missed.

A Memorial is scheduled at Pine Forest Memorial Gardens Wake Forest, NC 27587, NC on Friday March 6th at 11:00 AM.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to a SPCA of Wake County.