Carol was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 21 to Mary Agnes Grant and James Francis McGroarty, Jr. After graduating from Saint Savior High School (a place she described as “a school for smart girls”), she was graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City.
After graduation, Carol studied at Hunter College, did some modeling and acting, then went on to teach kindergarten, first grade and second grade children, all in one classroom, in New York City schools for several years. One fateful night, she heard the Hon. Desmond Guinness speak about a summer program at Trinity College Dublin taught by such luminaries as himself and poet Seamus Heaney. She never returned to New York after taking that course. Instead, she joined what became a corps of Irish Georgian Society activists and artists who restored Castletown House, the greatest of Georgian houses in Ireland, which had been recently rescued from destruction. Carol was the second volunteer to move into Castletown to do this work. After a time, Carol took a job as a teacher at Burtonwood U.S. Army Depot, a military base near Liverpool and Manchester in Northern England. There she met and married Captain Samuel Frazier of Decatur, Alabama. They were married in December 1970 at Castletown and celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in December 2020.
At law school in Tuscaloosa, where Sam was enrolled, Carol and Sam talked about every class and considered that law school was a joint experience. After graduation, the two settled in Birmingham with their two children, Sarah Mary and Samuel Hugh Jr. Carol was a fierce advocate for her family, an aficionado of old movies who knew every character actor’s name (which was aided greatly by her habit of cutting out on classes at Saint Savior High School to visit local movie theaters), an at-home Jeopardy champ, a mean poker player, a conversationalist who veered towards all subjects polite society considers most controversial, a preservationist, a lifelong Irish Georgian Society member who helped bring the Chieftains to Birmingham in 1980, a woman who defined her own glamor, whose sense of self demanded the respect of all wherever she went. She was the mother with whom your friends wanted to have a smoke.
Carol was predeceased by her father and mother, and by brother John Joseph McGroarty. She is survived by husband Sam, brother James Francis McGroarty, sister-in law Jane Carroll McGroarty, son Sam Jr., daughter Sarah, son-in-law Marc Sennewald, grandchildren James and Alexander Sennewald, as well as nieces and nephews and their children.
A Memorial Mass will be held at Saint Mark the Evangelist 7340 Cahaba Valley Rd. (Hwy 119) Birmingham, AL 35242, on Saturday, October 9 at 10:30 AM. Reception to follow at 4310 Glenwood Avenue – vaccinated guests welcome
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