Carolyn M. Barrett

Carolyn Murray Magruder Barrett passed away on February 3, 2023. Born in 1924 to Marie and James Roy Murray, Sr., Carolyn spent her childhood in Johnson City, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio. After graduating from the Hockaday School in Dallas, she went on to the University of Texas at Austin where she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She served as a duchess and a princess in successive years in the Battle of Flowers Coronation after the War.

She married Princeton graduate George Lloyd Magruder, a banker from a distinguished military family, with whom she had two sons. The family lived in Europe where Mr. Magruder was attached to First National City Bank (now Citibank), first in London, then in Athens, hosting many visiting San Antonians. Mr. Magruder’s transfer to New York in 1969 brought the family back to the States and they settled in the suburbs of New York City until her husband's death in 1973. Returning to her native Texas with her sons, she enjoyed a lively social life in San Antonio, renewing the many friendships of her youth, raising her sons, and devoting herself again to The Sunshine Cottage, a local school for the deaf whose establishment she had assisted decades before.

She remarried, in 1979, Marcus Thurman Barrett, Jr. of San Antonio, and their happy union lasted until his death in 1988. Her devoted brother, James Roy Murray, Jr., of San Antonio, predeceased her in 2017. Her sons, Roy Magruder of California and Burns Magruder of New York, survive her, as well as a grandson, nieces and nephews, and stepfamily. Her gregarious personality, together with her generous spirit and empathetic nature, endeared her to all and her easy laugh and kind heart will be remembered fondly.

A private graveside service for family only will take place at a later date.