Laura Carroll

Laura Margaret Carroll, 80, left this world peacefully to look her Savior in the face on January 30, 2023, at Robbins AMOREM in Hudson, NC. Laura was born November 15, 1942, in Hudson, to George Davis and Stella Sanford Carroll. She was the sixth child of eight.

Destined to be an athlete like her father, who played professional baseball briefly before focusing on family, Laura excelled at basketball at Hudson High School. She graduated from Hudson High in 1961 and became the free spirit she was born to be when she boarded the Peter, Paul, and Mary bus in Raleigh in the fall of 1961, bound for California, and rarely looked back for half a century.

Laura made her home on the West Coast, in both California and Oregon, for 50 years. She used her intelligence and relationship skills in her professional career, eventually retiring from the former Pacific Bell company and spending many years after that running a Portland, Oregon, pub where she developed a chosen family of friends.

Laura’s siblings talked her into returning to Hudson eleven years ago, including remodeling a cottage on Main Street to greet her and serve as home. In her golden years back in Hudson, Laura enjoyed sitting with and caretaking for several individuals in the community who considered her family. She could spin a good story and remembered the 1940s and 50s in Hudson with remarkable clarity. Her favorite pastimes were working outside and caring for “All God’s Creatures” in her yard.

Laura’s bushes and trees were filled with birds that she faithfully fed, especially cardinals. And she had conversations daily with her favorite groundhog, Georgette, and another regular, Sammy the Squirrel. Yes, those creatures would approach her on her deck to get their seeds, nuts, and bananas. What a treasure Laura Margaret Carroll was to all who knew her.

Laura was preceded in death by her parents, George and Stella Carroll; her daughter, April Whited; a brother, Roderick Duncan Carroll; two sisters, Mary Desma Carroll and Jacqualyn Mavis Hudak; and two brothers-in-law, Ron Hudak and T.S. Kim.

She leaves behind two sisters, Dryna Bly Rains (Eddie) of Atlanta, GA., and Kathy Elizabeth Kim of Hickory, NC; two brothers, George Davis Carroll (Linda) and Joel William Carroll (Kathy), both of Hudson; 16 nieces and nephews with great stories to tell; and dear friend, Van Josheff.

There will be a private family service at a date yet to be determined. Evans Funeral Home is serving the family. Memorials may be made to Burgess Chapel Unity Center, P.O. Box 677, Granite Falls, NC, 28630.

“We may speak about a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night; but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.”

- Max Lucado