Carolyn Ross died peacefully at her home July 6, 2026 in Romney, West Virginia.
She had successfully battled many health issues, but succumbed to heart failure.
Carolyn was welcomed into the world on June 1, 1949 as the first-born child of Dr. Thomas Edgar Ross and Dr. Harriet Herron Ross. Her parents predeceased Carolyn.
She is survived by her five siblings, to whom she was a loving big sister: Martha Ross Thomas (Jim), Nancy Ross Williams (Gene), Thomas Herron Ross, James Grooms Ross (Allison) and Betsy Ross (Chris).
Carolyn was an adoring aunt and great aunt to her extended family of nieces and nephews: Ross Williams; James Williams (Allie) and their children, Jacob and Brooke; Ben Williams (Liz) and their daughter, Corinna; Emily Thomas (Danny) and their daughter, Zadie; Catherine Thomas (Margaret) and their son, Tully; Sean Ross; Cameron Ross (Sabrina); Neil Sullivan (Paula); Lana Sullivan.
Carolyn cultivated deep and enduring friendships, and she is survived by many dear friends, some of whom are: Dr. Tamara Sanderson, Robert “Crash” Covington, Maggie Clayton, and Joy Kirks-Krueger. The family expresses gratitude to Dr. Paul Parker Williams for his many acts of friendship and attention.
In her later years, Carolyn’s extended family held her paramount attention and concern. She took great joy in attending family gatherings, and wanted to hear all details, monumental and mundane, about her many family members. She rejoiced in their accomplishments (graduations, jobs, marriages…), and happily inquired about the smallest of daily events (ballet recitals, birds visiting feeders, infants taking first steps, toddlers recounting alphabets…). She carefully selected treasures appropriate to each relative, and usually arrived at family events with copious gifts, one of her many expressions of love.
For much of her youth, Carolyn resided in Rockingham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She also spent many years in the Washington, D.C. area; New York City (where she became an accredited gemologist with a degree from the Gemological Institute of America); and in Pensacola, Florida, where she was a licensed real estate broker and condominium manager.
She enjoyed many adventures and traveled extensively in South America; the Caribbean; throughout the United States, including Hawaii; European countries ranging from Scandinavia to Greece; and even visited Ukraine and Russia. Carolyn was thrilled to remember the names of restaurants, museums, artworks, rivers, boulevards, cathedrals, coastlines and mountains and to identify enthusiastically the “not to be missed” sights. Carolyn was in search of the wonders of the world, and she had the expansive perspective to appreciate with awe and admiration what diversity of experience this world has to offer.
Carolyn was a natural beauty with a brilliant intelligence, a rare combination. Throughout her life, Carolyn had a keen curiosity and a scholar’s mind for an encyclopedic level of details about wide-ranging topics, which she could recall with unerring accuracy.
Carolyn attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an elite student accepted into the creative writing program. And she had a gift for writing, as demonstrated by her winning first place in the state in the North Carolina History high school essay contest. Following in her parents’ science-oriented academic path, she undertook many pre-med courses and was particularly adept at lab work. Carolyn’s penchant for international adventure took her on UNC’s selective Toronto Exchange Program to Canada. She also participated in Carolina Playmaker Productions, often with dancing roles.
Carolyn loved to dance. She studied with Johnny Green in the Rockingham area and flourished in ballet on toe, and in modern, jazz, and tap dancing. Carolyn choreographed and performed a captivating dream sequence dance for her high school production of “Oklahoma.” With extraordinary sophistication, she choreographed and performed a modern jazz dance for competition (which she won) at Western Carolina’s summer program for gifted high school students. In her 70s, Carolyn gleefully danced the Carolina Shuffle at the weddings of her nieces and nephew.
Carolyn was a romantic of the highest order, always seeking and believing in the power of literature, the visual and performing arts, travel, and interactions with treasured people as pathways to a beautiful existence. Carolyn’s hallmarks of a bright, inquisitive spirit; her sense of wonder; her capacity for deep affection have been inspirational to many, and will be profoundly missed.
A graveside memorial ceremony and burial at the East Side Cemetery in Rockingham, North Carolina, will be held at a time and date to be determined later.
Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church of Rockingham, 201 North Randolph St., Rockingham, NC 28379.
Please direct inquiries to Shaffer Funeral Home in Romney, West Virginia, 304-822-3511.
