Elizabeth Carroll

Surrounded by family, Mary Elizabeth Whittemore Carroll passed as gently as could be managed on Sunday February 18th, 2024. Elizabeth was born April 25 1955 in Dalton, Georgia to Jessie and John Whittemore, both now deceased. She grew up in North Georgia with her older sister and brother, Anne and John. She graduated from Presbyterian College (SC) in 1977 before moving to Atlanta in 1979. In Atlanta, Elizabeth grew in her love for choral music, house plant husbandry, and literature. She also met, married, and raised her family with her husband of 41 years, Richard Garland Carroll. Richard and Elizabeth have two children, Benjamin Whittemore Belzer-Carroll and Anne Munroe Carroll.

Throughout her life, Elizabeth built family within many organizations. She joined Schola Cantorum, an early music choral group, first as a director in 1980 and then as a singer until 2018. Since 1992, she had been a congregant, parent, and choir member at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Atlanta. In 2001, Elizabeth joined the administrative staff at Decatur School of Ballet. She watched the school and its members grow and thrive all the way through her retirement in August 2023. After her second diagnosis of breast cancer in 2018, Elizabeth built mutually comforting and entertaining relationships with breast cancer survivor groups associated with the Winship Cancer Center of Emory Hospital as well as with the center's staff.

Of the light Elizabeth brought to the world, no words are sufficient. Elizabeth was not a thrill seeker. She delighted in the ordinary things; children's literature, nourishing food, light through leaves of all seasons, collecting and displaying beautiful animal figures. She could encourage, comfort, entertain, and tease with both gentleness and sharp wit. Though soft spoken, she was as firm in her identity and values as she was loving of those she called family.

Elizabeth is survived by much family including: her husband Richard, her children Ben and Anne and their spouses Arianne and Jeff, her two grandsons Noam and Nicholas, her siblings Anne and John, their spouses and children, many grandnieces and -nephews, several cousins, and innumerable friends.

The Celebration of Life will be held at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Lavista Rd. at 11 am on Thursday February 22nd. Interment in the St. Joseph of Arimathea Memorial Garden will occur directly after the service. In place of flowers, memorial gifts may be given to St. Bartholomew's here https://onrealm.org/stbartsatlanta/-/form/give/now