Carol Anne Cory: ‘Always moving forward’
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Carol Anne Cory
On Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 Carol Anne Cory passed away at the age of 88 in the home of her eldest son Brian Cory in North Las Vegas, Nevada surrounded by family. Carol is survived by her partner of the past five years Joseph “Rip” Kirby, her six children Brian, Scott, Mark, Sean, Lisa and Tim, 11 grandchildren Steven, Kristine, Kevin, Melissa, Hannah, Oliver, Noah, Daniel, Chelsea, Julia and Adam, 11 great-grandchildren Sunday, Gabrielle, Liam, Nathaniel, Ronan, Eden, Alira, Landon, Benjamin (Puliklah), Melania (Che’Noa), Kehlani (Aiyanna). She was the loving matriarch of this great clan.
The eldest daughter of Robert O’Brien and Louise Brancheau, she was born Dec. 29, 1934 in San Rafael, Calif. She spent her childhood living in San Rafael and in Hollister, Calif., White Plains, New York and back to San Rafael, where she graduated from Marin Catholic High School. At Marin Catholic she met her first husband and father of her six children, Robert Cory. Bob and Carol moved to the Garberville area in 1959 when they purchased the lab at Southern Humboldt Community Hospital. In her almost 60 years living in Southern Humboldt she created a lasting legacy. She started the first Hospice care service in the area, for many years led the Red Cross summer swim program at Benbow Lake, was a driving force within the Our Lady of the Redwoods Catholic Parish, organized summer camps at the YMCA Camp, and was an active member of the Soroptimist Club and an organizer in youth sports to support her six children.
Carol was always moving forward! Upon dissolution of her first marriage she went back to school to obtain her nursing degree. She started Hospice upon completion of her degree, by her account because the area needed one and “I needed a job.” Around that time she started working at Redwood Memorial Hospital where she was a surgical nurse for over 25 years, only interrupted by a five-year stint in San Francisco working at the French Hospital on Geary Street. During this time she married her second husband, Harry Horner. They moved back to Garberville. Harry and Carol spent much of their free time playing golf, socializing with friends and traveling both domestically and to Asia and Europe.
Carol was a lifelong Giants fan, as baseball played a key part of her life. Her father was an accomplished baseball player, her second husband played well into his 40s and she met her first husband at her brother’s baseball practice. She attended many Giants games in person with her longtime friend Ora Swithenbank, spent much of her final years watching on TV as the Giants won pennants in the good years and suffer through other years. Carol was an avid swimmer her entire life, many years at home in Redway, then later with a group in Briceland and finally at the YMCA in Las Vegas. When she started seeing Rip they regularly played poker with a group out in Whitethorn.
Carol lived in the Southern Humboldt area until 2018 when she moved to Utah to be close to her eldest son, Brian. However, always moving forward, she didn’t leave town alone as Rip Kirby joined her in Clearfield, Utah. They spent their time exploring the area, pursuing their interests, and hosting family. After two years in Utah, the exploring continued as Carol and Rip moved alongside Brian and family in Las Vegas, where they spent Carol’s final years together.
A memorial service will be held May 26, 2024 at Our Lady of the Redwoods with a celebration of Carol’s life after; a notice will be posted closer to the date.
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The Redheaded Blackbelt family would like to express our deepest sympathies to Carol Cory’s family. If she had done nothing else but be part of her grandson Oliver’s life, we would be grateful. He has been freelancing here since even before he got his journalism degree. I don’t know if Redheaded Blackbelt would have survived without his hard work and creativity in the early years. My heart goes out to Oliver in this loss.
But, her life enriched so many of us who lived in SoHum–from swim lessons for small children to bringing Hospice care to those who passed to the many fine children she raised that many of us shared classrooms and sports teams with.
I particularly want to extend my condolences to Scott who was in my class at South Fork. Your mother made a difference to our community.
Carol was my neighbor and good friend…we watched many many Giants games together, shared a few holidays-generally included me in her ‘family’.
If I had only one word to describe Carol is would be: Gracious.
She was the most gracious person I’ve ever known…
I didn’t keep up, with both her and I leaving Garberville around the same time…exchanged a few letters and a phone call or two but…”(
My condolences to the Corys…Lisa, Anell & Brian, Dan and Chelsea…the whole durn crew of ’em.
Your mom is/was a treasure and will be missed…
Condolences to the Cory family, and a big hug to Lisa Cory. I know you loved your mom as much as I loved mine. The loss is tremendous, but the love was well worth the tears. May her memory hold you all as you adjust to her absence.
I have so many awesome and wonderful memories at the Cory house in Redway growing up, that big giant Saint Bernard and the herd of puppies, or the swimming. It was a great honor when Carol came to my wedding in 1981. Shout out to Brian, the Cory Family and Rip, so sorry for your loss.
To Brian and the extended Cory family,
On behalf of the Smith brothers: John, Fred and Joe, we send our most sincere condolences on the death of your mother. Carol was a great person, an agent and activist good, and a positive role model for all of us. She used her life to make herself and the world a better place. We need to be grateful for knowing her as we need more people in the world today like her.
Take comfort in these words given to me by Roy Heider on the morning of my mother’s death, “Understand that you mother is in heaven now, for if she is not, none of us will ever make it there.”
We will see you next May in Garberville,
Fredrick W. Smith, Ph.D.