KILL DEVIL HILLS — Julia Cathryn “Cathy” Carroll of Kill Devil Hills, NC has earned her wings and was called away to Heaven peacefully after a short illness from cancer on April 29, 2023. She is now flying high! Cathy was born March 21, 1933, in Guthrie Oklahoma to John A. Carroll and Ethel Julia Welch Carroll. Raised on a farm northeast of Guthrie OK and at a young age moved with her parents to a farm south of Carney Oklahoma.
As a child around eight or nine years of age she remembers during World II, P-38 pilots practiced dogfights over the farm. She would sit on her little flatbed wagon her brothers made for her, staring into the sky, and using the wagon tongue like an aircraft control stick, she would go through all the maneuvers of the P-38s as they rehearsed for war. Many years later, she decided that air traffic control would be her vocation.
After her dad tragically died of a heart attack, while on his tractor, she and her mother continued to live there for a few years before they decided, that a herd of cattle, numerous chickens on a 160-acres of land, were too much work. They decided to move to Lawton/Ft Sill, Oklahoma to be close to her daughter/sister and her husband, as he was in the Army.
After graduating from high school in Lawton, Oklahoma, Cathy attended Oklahoma Baptist University. She found a job that would help pay college tuition only to learn that she couldn’t leave the campus because it was a night job. She quit college and decided to join the Army; however, on the way to see the Army recruiter, she saw a sign “Join the Navy.” At this point, she thought she would look better in navy blue rather than Army green; she joined the United States Navy!
While in the Navy, where she served from Sept 1953 until Sept. 1957, Cathy was trained as an air traffic controller. After her discharge from the Navy, she was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in Columbus OH. At age 27-years, with a bit of charm amidst a sea if men, Cathy was the first female FAA traffic controller to attend the Aeromedical Research Institute in Oklahoma City. A woman ahead of her time! The author of a publication “Pull Back on your Power” gives an insight into her life and her strength.
She is preceded in death by her parents, her brothers, Ira, Trilbus, Cecil, Howard and Lloyd Carroll and a sister Nancy Anita Carroll-Holt and their spouses, a niece, Patti Carroll Turner, a great niece, Tonya McDonald and a great nephew, Michael Turner.
She leaves behind several nieces and nephews: James and Noreen Carroll-Clouse, Edmond OK; Evert and Mariann Carroll, Donald and Cynthia Carroll, Raymond and Kathleen Carroll-Smedley, Guthrie OK; Rick and Sara (Haugh) Holt, San Diego, CA; Jack and Marilyn Carroll, Edmond OK; John Carroll, Cookson OK; Linda Carroll, Sacramento, CA; Mark and Garnetta (Carroll) Payne, Broken Arrow OK; Jerry and Charlotte Carroll-Beene, Shawnee OK; Keith and Nancy (Ocker) Carroll, Shippensburg, PA; and, Larry and Jan Holt-McDonald, Midwest City OK; and many Great nieces and Great nephews and Great-Great nieces and nephews.
No services are planned at this time. Please share condolences with the family at gallopfuneralservices.com. Gallop Funeral Services, Inc. was entrusted with arrangements.
