Caroline Louise Brown's Obituary
Caroline Louise Brown
“Carol” Brown, 79, passed away peacefully on Friday, June 21, 2024 at her daughter’s Salt Lake City home with all of her girls by her side.
She was born on February 6,1945 in the District of Columbia to Caroline Barry and Lander Dellinger. Carol spent most of her childhood in San Diego after her dad retired from the Marine Corps. She was the 4th oldest of five but took on the role as her siblings’ unofficial leader and protector…as well as the occasional “disciplinarian” and dance instructor.
She was a highly successful Surety Bond agent for Scheer’s West, Inc., which she later ended up owning. She began her career in the late 70’s at Fireman’s Fund and worked her way up through the ranks to become Bond Manager of the Salt Lake office. Carol went on to run two successful offices for CNA Insurance, including their largest surety bond office in Chicago. She was respected in the industry and had no fear of ripping away the traditional molds of the “good ol’ boys club”.
Carol often approached life like one approaches a battle. And that’s because it often was. She was a “tough broad” with the most generous soul and a profoundly loving heart to those she cared about. Shy by nature but strong in character, she wasn’t afraid of anything…except heights. She had been known to lie on the floor of an elevator in panic…and required no less than three Bloody Marys to board a plane. When she wasn’t waving her sword at life, with “man hands” tipped in her favorite bright red nail polish and a cloud of Oscar De La Renta, she loved to camp at Mustang Ridge in Flaming Gorge, country line dance at the Westerner and explore the California coast in her 1997 Holiday Rambler…which she would have been buried in, if it had been possible. She also loved to visit the family’s property on Gordon Lake in Glidden, Wisconsin, spend summer days at her dad’s in Bon Wier, Texas eating Grandma Ev’s amazing cooking and she rarely missed a July in Del Mar betting on the horse races.
More than anything though, Carol loved being with her kids and then later being nana to her grandkids. Before she lost the first battle in 2004 when her son died, she never missed a recital, dance concert or birthday…especially if there was a Mrs. Backers white cake with pineapple buttercream filling involved. Carol was incredibly young for her age…which happens when you run around after a toddler in your 50s. Because of course she had our miracle baby at 50…even lying to the doctors about her age. At the same time, she was aiding and supporting many in our family, particularly our grandparents, but also extended family through their hard times. She was married three times…and divorced three times. She never did follow the traditional path.
Carol leaves behind her daughters, Caroline Louise Hickey (Joseph) and Kelly Grace Black (Nicholas); her granddaughter, Caroline Sophia Hickey; her brothers, Barry Dellinger (Carol) and David Dellinger (Jan) and many extended family members, including those through marriage or circumstance that she loved dearly. She is preceded in death by her son, Christopher David Brown; her Mother, Caroline Louise Barry; her father, Lander Henry Dellinger and his wife, Evelyn Dellinger; her sister, Ann Dellinger and lastly her grandson, Jacob Joseph Hickey.
A private service will be held on July 13th in Park City, Utah.
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