On May 25, 2019, Carolyn Rives Lowry Lloyd shrugged off her earthly body like an old coat and stepped into the arms of Jesus. She was 93 years old.
Carolyn was born to Albert Martin Rives II and Thelma Gladys Sanders Rives on June 28, 1925 in Mansfield, Louisiana. She was the youngest of three. Her siblings were Thelma Sanders Rives and Albert Martin Rives III. Her father was a dairy farmer, first in Mansfield and later in Grand Cane Louisiana.
In 1942 Carolyn graduated from Grand Cane High School as valedictorian. Not long afterwards her future husband, Robert Cauthen Lowry, came to Mansfield to work on an auxiliary air field to what is now Barksdale Air Force Base. The air strip happened to be right across the highway from the Rives’ farm. Family lore has it that Bob observed Carolyn through his surveyor’s scope and arranged to be introduced. The couple married on May 25, 1945. By then Bob had enlisted in the Navy and completed his initial training. Like many couples who married during the war they had only a short time together before Bob was deployed overseas.
After the war ended, Carolyn lived with her parents on the farm while Bob attended college on the GI Bill. After his graduation in 1951 the couple moved to Panama City, Florida where Bob went to work as an engineer at the Navy Base.
The couple shared a devotion to Christ but could not agree on a denomination. Carolyn joined St. Andrew Baptist Church but Bob had been raised Presbyterian and ultimately joined St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. Early on they decided that any girls they had would attend the Baptist church and any boys would be Presbyterians. They had three girls. In the late 1950s some couples associated with both the Navy Base and St. Andrews Baptist Church purchased lots and built homes in the Pretty Bayou neighborhood. Some of them had been neighbors around Fairland Avenue. It’s unclear whether they moved to remain close to each other or if they just happened to share information and ended up in the same development. Carolyn’s best friend Martha Lloyd and her husband Bruce – who began work at the Navy Base on the same day as Bob - were one of these couples.
Carolyn spent the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s raising her daughters, sewing their clothes (and her own), working at St. Andrews Baptist Church as a librarian and as a secretary, participating in the PTA, and doing all of the things that were expected of a housewife at the time. Her friend Martha Lloyd worked as a school librarian so Carolyn sometimes kept the Lloyd children when they were sick on a school day. Although all of the neighborhood children were welcome in each others’ homes, Martha and Carolyn’s children were especially close.
After 59 1/2 years of marriage, Bob died on December 26, 2004. Carolyn’s best friend Martha Lloyd passed away the following September.
Carolyn’s adult children were all living elsewhere at the time of Bob’s death. The Lloyd children, most of whom remained in the area, treated Carolyn as the second mother she had always been. Over the course of the next few years Carolyn was included in all Lloyd family gatherings. In 2007 Bruce Lloyd, encouraged by his children, proposed to Carolyn. They were married on September 29th of that year with the youngest Lloyd son, David, performing the ceremony. The ‘children’ who had always been like brothers and sisters were now family. After six wonderful years of marriage Carolyn became a widow for the second time when Bruce passed away in December of 2013.
Carolyn Rives Lowry Lloyd was predeceased by her parents, siblings, cousins, both husbands, and her two sons, Bruce “Chip” Lloyd. Jr. (Sherri) in 2011 and David Lloyd (Evelyne) in 2018.
She is survived by her sister- in-law Nelle Byrd, beloved nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grandnephews and her five daughters, Martha Susan Lowry (Dale), Becky Leger (Dan), Joy Lloyd, Mary Lowry (Jay), and Louise Lowry-Crow (Bryan). Her grandchildren are Jeremy Lloyd, Jordan Lloyd, Erin Lowry, Jon Crow, Sonja Arrants, Robin Dial (David), Eric Arrants (Inga), Kalen Huffman (Jared), Katharine Rives Binford (Todd), Martin Crow (Hayley), Dana Lavallee (Jacob), Connor Stripling, Susannah Lloyd, Emma Lloyd, Rosie Lloyd, and Marcella Lloyd. She leaves behind 16 great-grandchildren.
Services were held at 2:00 P.M. Saturday, June 1, 2019 at Kent-Forest Lawn Funeral Home. Family received friends 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M. Friday, May 31, 2019 at the funeral home.
Serving as pallbearers are Bryan Crow, Jay Fowler, Jon Crow, Martin Crow, Jacob LaVallee, and Eric Arrants.