Sober 19 years since 12/13/1987, Carol is married to Victor who recorded a number of the Allatoona Roundup events. He recently sold that business and retired.
Together they have also been a large part of the Huntsville Roundup over the years.
Raised by an overbearing, very military stepfather starting when her brother was 6 and she was 4, her real dad was part of a big family living all around Carol - loving and caring and close. Then the divorce and a move to Memphis, TN. Her world changed.
She had a tough time growing up. She was a loner who wanted to belong, often taking care of drunken parents.
They moved many times in the military including several places in California and Guam for three years. Before she even got drunk she was doing geographics - starting over. He retired while they were living in Huntsville.
After high school in 1964, she met a guy in 1965 with a "great car" and got pregnant. Two weeks before they married, she found out he had been married before and had two boys that came to live with them. Thus, she had three children to raise by the time she was 20.
"I had to be a wife and a mother and I didn't know how to do either one...We made it nine years...During those nine years I was mentally and physically abusive to those boys... They have forgiven me and still call me Momma."