Carolyn C. Kimley

Carolyn (Carl) Kimley passed away peacefully on Tuesday morning, January 2, 2024. She was born on March 11, 1940, in Centralia, Illinois, to Margaret Lucille (Dagenhardt) Carl and Albert Henry Carl. Her parents are predeceased. She is survived by two younger sisters, Anne (Carl) Schwartz and Kathy (Carl) Miller, both of whom are lifetime residents of her hometown Centralia, Illinois.

She bore, raised and greatly loved her five children with her predeceased ex-husband who is also of Centralia, Illinois, David A. Barr: Michele Lynn (partner Derrieck) of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Gabrielle Ann (husband Keith) of Fayetteville, Georgia, Jacqueline Marie (husband Brantley) of Tallahassee, Florida, Ryan Charles Patrick (wife Jennie) of Ponce Inlet, Florida, and Brannon David of Fayetteville, Georgia.

She has seven grandchildren: Garrett, Katie, Patrick, Ben, Savannah, Chaelee, Holly, all of whom lovingly called her Gram/Grammy. Each grandchild spent their individual youths with their Gram/ Grammy always being actively involved in their lives. She has three adorable great grandchildren: Selah, Judah, Renah, and she spent the last months of her life watching them grow, giving her a special kind of love.

She was predeceased by her late husband, Robert J. Kimley, a WWII Marine and the cofounder of Kimley-Horn, one of the nation’s premier engineering, planning and design consultants with offices in 34 states and 129 cities. She shared a very happy life with him in Raleigh, North Carolina, Oak Island, North Carolina, and lastly Port Orange, Florida. They took many trips throughout our great country together and immensely enjoyed dancing together in dance lessons and at various galas.

Carolyn was a teen of the 50’s whose love for Elvis’s rock n’roll, real hamburgers, soda fountain cokes and the post-war era embedded deep roots of family love and true small town American values. She was an avid award-winning gardener with a green thumb inherited from her maternal grandmother. She was also an accomplished pianist who played daily for pleasure for over seventy-eight years.

Throughout her children’s lives she was their biggest champion. Her children describe her as a fierce lioness who could overcome every obstacle life threw at her. And they describe her as a truly remarkable woman. May she now rest in peace with God and her predeceased loved ones with the comfort of knowing all five of her children loved her deeply.

She will be laid to rest next to her late husband at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. The family requests no flowers be sent, and any donations desired to be made please do so to Hospice.