Carol Coglan McMonagle

Carol Coglan McMonagle, 87, died in Oceanside, CA on December 17, 2025. Carol Anne Coglan was born in Manhattan to William Richard and Dorothy Gloria (Blake) Coglan on June 5, 1938. Carol spent much of her childhood in New York City, moving with her family to Rye, NY, when she was 12 years old.

Carol graduated from Rye High School in 1955 and the Greenwich (CT) Hospital School of Nursing in 1958. She then attended the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. While she apparently completed sufficient course work to remain a student, her primary pursuit was skiing.

She later moved to Nice, France, where she lived with the family of her cousin, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, and was the nanny for his two young daughters. Soon after arriving in Nice, she met the love of her life, a US Marine assigned to the USS Des Moines (CA-134), which was homeported in nearby Villefranche-sur-Mer. Carol and Captain James J. McMonagle were wed in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on May 30, 1960. Carol said that her honeymoon lasted more than six months; she and another wife drove from port to port, following the Des Moines as it traversed the Mediterranean.

In early 1961, Carol and Jim moved to Quantico, VA, and she continued her life as a Marine wife with enthusiasm. She and Jim moved 14 times during the next 28 years, adding three sons along the way. Carol devoted herself to Marine wives’ club functions, and school/sports events for her three active boys. She also found time for horseback riding, and later took up scuba diving and tennis in her 40s.

Regardless of where they were living, Carol would pack up the boys as soon as the school year ended and drive to her parents’ lake house in Westchester County, New York. Jim would join them on weekends, and they would only leave just in time for the beginning of the next school year.

Carol and Jim were living at Camp Pendleton when he retired in 1988, and they settled in nearby Vista, CA. After so many moves, Carol was thrilled to put down some roots; they remained together in Southern California for the next 36 years until Jim’s death in October 2024.

Carol was organized and energetic. She could be demanding and exacting, while also being kind and gracious. Though she insisted that school was serious business, she would often allow for a few days of hooky to take the boys skiing when they were young.

Carol remained very active throughout her life. She continued skiing into her 70s, and she played tennis into her 80s. Anyone who visited her during the past two years knew she was always willing to take a walk.

Carol loved a bargain. She would check each bill and dicker over the small things she didn’t value so she could spend generously on things she did. She would take the discount for a scratched or dented item so she could pay for adventures for her family. Whitewater rafting in Northern California, touring Asia during their year in Okinawa, foreign trips for her sons, and a 50th Anniversary trip for the entire family back to Nice were just some of the experiences she funded.

Carol was also a big proponent of education. She always made sure to send her sons to the best schools available to them wherever they were living. Sometimes it was private schools, and sometimes it was public schools. While military pay was not overly generous in those days, she never commented on the cost of tuition. Pinching pennies in other areas made that all possible.

Carol accumulated a wide network of military friends from various assignments, and she loved traveling to catch up with them. Her sons live in three different states, yet often visited them each twice per year, in addition to catching up when schedules would put them together during her summers in New York.

Carol will be greatly missed by family and friends. She is survived by her sons, Richard (Carolyn) of Austin, TX, Robert (Denise) of Davenport, IA, and David (Ann) of St. Paul, MN, and her grandchildren Patrick and Grace, both of Davenport, IA. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jim, and her grandsons James and Stephen, may they rest in peace.

When the weather turns warmer, Carol will be interred next to Jim in the town cemetery in South Salem, NY, near the family lake house that she loved so much.