Ann Kane Carroll of Cincinnati, OH died January 16, 2023, at the age of ninety-three. Ann was born in 1929, a few months before the official start of the Great Depression. Ann and her younger sister Patty (Patty Paquette, died 2012) grew up in Cincinnati and lived in the Madisonville neighborhood. Ann and Patty attended the Villa Madonna Academy, and both began working at Cincinnati Bell in the late 1940’s.
Ann married John D. Carroll, Jr. (Jack, died 1994) in 1953 and remained married for 41 years. They had four children, John D. III (Jay, died 1985), Mark (died 2015, married to Lisa), Martha (married to Joe Stephen), and Matt (married to Laura Kleinman). As a dedicated spouse, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, Ann was a constant source of wit, wisdom, and steadfast guidance to her children, her grandchildren (Johnny, Jay, Jacqueline, Harry, Joe, and the late Andrew), and to many others who knew her. Ann was also fortunate to meet Harold Varnau (died 2014), and they married in 2005, and enjoyed many happy years in Cincinnati and seasonally in Florida.
Ann’s most meaningful lesson-by-example to her children and other family members was her resilience in the face of life’s tragedies. Losing her oldest son Jay, her husband Jack, her husband Harold, her son Mark, and her grandson Andrew over the course of her life was a difficult burden but something that she managed with remarkable - but for mom, routine - strength.
Ann’s children and grandchildren will always remember fondly the time spent over the years during holidays, vacations, and just any day with the extended families of the Paquettes and Carrolls. It exemplified the priority that Ann had for family, which was one of her most consistent talking points.
After devoting many years to raising her children, Ann displayed a not-at-all surprising talent in retail fashion, where she worked part-time over the course of her life and earned the trust of her customers by telling them what looked good on them but also what did not. Ann also had a significant foray into a career of promoting and participating in charity fashion shows, where she walked many a runway, and often enlisted daughter Martha and others to participate.
Ann also took up the philanthropy mantle by continuing husband Jack’s establishment of a foundation to support the Jay Carroll Memorial Library at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, as well as a scholarship program that continues today. Those who wish to donate in Ann’s memory can do so to the Jay Carroll Scholarship Fund at St. Xavier High School, 600 West North Bend Road, Cincinnati, OH 45224.
Visitation will be held at Gilligan Funeral Home, 8225 Montgomery Road, on Friday January 27, 2023 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. Mass of Christian Burial will be on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at All Saints Church, 8939 Montgomery Road.
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