CARROLL MOORE MAKEMSON
Carroll Moore Makemson
October 21, 1949–January 3, 2025
Once upon a time, in Roanoke, Virginia, under the light of the Mill Mountain Star, Mary Carroll Moore was born to proud parents William and Mary. Carroll’s aunt and long-time fellow do-gooder and mischief-maker, Frances Eddy (Aunt Boo) attended Carroll’s birth, cementing their soul connection from the start. Carroll’s early childhood was spent in Pennsylvania, where her father attended Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Carroll encountered school for the first time. She never left education after that.
In 1954, William, Mary, Carroll, and sister Margaret moved to Quincy, Illinois, where brother John joined the family’s tale. Carroll loved books from an early age, tolerated piano lessons, and spent many hours at Central Baptist, the church her father served bi-vocationally while he taught high school history. Carroll learned to love and serve the Beloved Community at Central, where she took on leadership roles as a teen that shaped her servant's heart for the entirety of her adult life.
Carroll graduated from Quincy High School, where her friendship with “The Quincy Girls” bloomed. These friends followed each other’s adventures from afar as their lives and careers took them to different states. As adults, the Quincy Girls traveled together annually– something Carroll looked forward to each year with great excitement.
In 1967, Carroll left home for MacMurray College, where she studied English and Education and met her great love, Thomas Makemson. Tom and Carroll married in 1970, graduated from MacMurray in 1971, and then moved to Columbia for their graduate studies at Mizzou. Carroll was an enthusiastic Tiger-striped librarian for life.
Carroll began her career with Liberty Public Schools at Liberty Junior High School in 1973. Throughout her years with LPS, she worked at the elementary through high school levels and eventually became the Coordinator for Library Media Services for the district. Carroll and her team of librarians and tech types opened new libraries, wrote and won grants, fought against book banning, won national awards for their programs, welcomed numerous authors, and shaped the minds and lives of countless students and families. They also formed deep friendships as Carroll was a leader, mentor, friend, and champion of her human family throughout her time Liberty—in the schools and the wider community. A speech from one of her many professional award ceremonies said you could find Carroll at work by looking for the tornado of energy, vision, commitment, and love at the center of the library but also be assured that she would drop everything and give you her full attention, endless patience, and gracious support the minute you needed it.
In Liberty, Carroll and Tom’s family grew to include their son, Justin, and their daughter, Leah, for whom Carroll was a dedicated and loving kid taxi driver, sidelines cheerleader, audience member, heart-mender, sharer of wisdom, and role model for living a life of Love. Carroll wholeheartedly embraced daughter-in-law, Lora and son-in-law Justin, as well as her treasured role as Grandma. She regularly flew and drove long distances to love on and care for grandkids Keller, Meyer, Ingle, Aiden, and Mara.
Carroll and Tom also traveled extensively with their RV and visited countless National Parks. Carroll, ever the keeper of family stories and memories, kept meticulous journals of the people, natural wonders, learnings, and feasts they encountered on the road. To no one’s surprise, she made friends wherever they went.
Before and after she retired, Carroll stayed busy as a servant leader, Sunday school teacher, and worker bee at her church home, Second Baptist Church. She gave her time and heart to reading and learning with her numerous book clubs and her Tuesday Sisters, as a mentor with Mothers of Preschoolers, as a champion for justice-seeking causes and progressive elected officials, as a faithful friend who always showed up, and as a Christian who followed and loved like Jesus. This Jesus love meant Carroll was always expanding her mind and circle, setting a longer table, and welcoming all.
Carroll’s medical journey made evident just how wide she cast her net of love and kindness. Her Tuesday Sisters moved their weekly meetings to her bedside when she felt well enough to attend. A hospital housekeeper she befriended came to visit her after work. During her repeated hospital stays, nurses from previous stays dropped by to visit and wish her well. Her surgeon followed her for months after her surgery and became emotional when he described how much he had wanted to help her. Church friends set up a meal train to help feed her caregivers. At Carroll’s final stop at hospice, the workers moved her bed from her room to the lounge so she could supervise her annual Christmas book exchange with her family. At hospice, Carroll’s last nurse remembered her from Liberty Junior High, the chaplain was a favorite Facebook friend, and the chaplain’s mother was a friend of hers from her days at Liberty Public Schools.
Carroll spent the last chapter of her life fighting cancer because she “wasn’t done yet.” Neither is the impact she had on each of our lives and hearts. Because she taught and loved each of the characters in her story so well, this isn’t the end. This is a story to be continued…
Carroll will be missed by a wide circle of family and friends, especially by–
Tom Makemson
Justin and Lora Makemson
Leah and Justin Lonsbury
Keller, Meyer, and Ingle Makemson
Aiden and Mara Lonsbury
Margaret Morgan
John and Susan Moore
Molly Moore and Jon Clancy
Andy Moore
Greg and Tiffany Morgan
Dan Morgan
Kyle Makemson
Tyler Makemson