Helen Carroll

Born in Alameda to Mae and George McCarthy, Helen was the second child, following her sister Gertrude through St. Joseph’s Grammar School and Notre Dame High School. She was the second to graduate from college, attending Notre Dame in Belmont and then earning her bachelor’s degree and teaching credential at Holy Names College in Oakland.

Helen’s college studies coincided with World War II. Before the war began, she had met her future husband, Charles Carroll. In December 1943, Helen traveled by train with her mother to wed Lieutenant, j.g. Carroll in Florida where he was stationed. She stayed there until hurricane season, and then she boarded a train back to California where she could safely have their first child, Julie. When the war ended and her husband returned to Alameda, more children followed-Baby Boomers Jim, Joan, and Jeannie.

Soon after their fourth child, Helen joined the Alameda Unified School District and secured a teaching position that lasted thirty years, mostly spent at Frank Otis Elementary in Rm. 9. She had one short break to have their fifth child-Jan, completing the five J’s.

In the 1960s, with adult children moving out, the Carrolls downsized to a townhome on Bay Farm Island. In the 1970s, they enjoyed sailing and membership in the Island Yacht Club. Helen retired in 1983 and then volunteered at Providence Hospital. Following her husband’s death in 1995, Helen traveled with family and friends in the U.S. and Europe. She moved to the Waters Edge Lodge at 95, staying close to her family and turning them into avid Warriors fans. She endured a year-long lockdown from March 2020 to March 2021, with her iPad for FaceTiming and Zooming and her iPhone for texting.

Mother was predeceased by her parents, husband, sister and brother-in-law-Gertrude and Joe Gaillard-her nephew George, and many dear friends from school, college, her teaching days, the boating era, and from her time at the Waters Edge Lodge. She is survived by her five devoted children–Julie Clerk, Jeannine Pitney and James, Joan, and Janice Carroll; her son-in-law Joel Pitney (Jeannie); her four grandchildren-Emily Nelson (Mike), Jess Pitney (Vanessa), Sean Pitney and Katie Carroll; her five great grandsons-Austin, Alex, and Aidan Nelson and Jackson and Max Pitney; and by Gertrude’s son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Lynn Gaillard, George’s widow, Gayle Gaillard, and Mother’s nephews’ children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was 102. She had a good life. She was devoted to her family and to her faith. Thanks for everything, Mom!

A rosary will precede a funeral Mass at St. Albert the Great’s parish in Alameda on November 22, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the National Catholic Broadcasting Council of Canada who provided Mother with daily Mass via their YouTube channel from lockdown until her death. Harry W. Greer, Funeral Director (FDR-745)