Carol Page-Head

A native of Alexander City, Alabama, Carol was born on New Year's Day in 1944. Her diagnosis with Crouzon Syndrome, a hereditary craniofacial deformity, meant she faced experimental reconstructive surgery on her cranial vault. The surgery was a success. An only child, she spent much of her childhood in the parsonage of her grandfather, the Rev. John R. Carwile; tending to her blind father, the lay minister and church musician Robert Carwile; and bonding with her mother, schoolteacher Maybelle Bozeman Carwile.

Carol graduated nursing school at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in 1963. She worked for several years as a registered nurse in labor and delivery for low-income patients in the Birmingham area until family life called. In 1966 she married John Head and became a stay-at-home mother for her three stepchildren, later adopting one of them, Debbie, as her own daughter. Carol had difficulty having biological children of her own, experiencing nine miscarriages and a stillbirth before she had her first biological son, Jim, in 1972. Tom followed in 1978. Carol also became guardian of Debbie's youngest child, Anthony Gannon, in 1987, and raised him like a third son.

Carol's marriage with John deteriorated in the late 1990s, and she began to focus her life on caring for her aging parents. (Following up on a lifelong dream, she also completed her bachelor's degree in 1998.) She formally married her longtime best friend Cappy Page in 2009. Carol suffered a stroke in early 2012 after the death of her parents, and Cappy's death in 2018 marked the end of the happiest phase of Carol's life. She converted to Catholicism in 2019, donated money and property to local nonprofits, and enjoyed taking care of her elderly rescue dogs through the end of their lives, but outside of her sitters, her doctors, and her sons, she spent her final years in restful seclusion.

Carol is predeceased by her parents, Maybelle Bozeman Carwile and Robert Carwile of Alabama; by her beloved wife, Catherine (Cappy) Page-Head; by her ex-husband (with whom she remained on good terms), John Head; by her stepson, Dave Head; and by her grandson, James David Head. She is survived by her children, Debbie (Dennis) Hardy of Florida, Jim (Kathy) Head of Brandon, and Tom (Deirdre) Head of Jackson; by the grandson she raised, Anthony (Kim) Gannon of Delaware; by her stepdaughter, Dee (Mike) Vaughan of Alabama; and by a host of cousins, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to your favorite local no-kill animal shelter.