James Keith Carroll

James Keith Carroll was born November 24, 1942, in Los Angeles to Mildred Lee Coleman and Roy Lin Carroll. He died on April 3, 2026. His early years were divided between Southern California and Texas.

He graduated from Bell Gardens High School in 1961 and immediately joined the United States Navy. He served on the heavy cruiser, USS Los Angeles.

He worked all his life at one job or another including grocery warehouses, truck driver, and drive-in theater manager. He opened his own business in industrial catering which he ran for 20 years. He sold the business in the late 1980s.

Jim was always reinventing himself. He started college in 1964, but life and family got in the way, and he finally graduated from Taft College in 2008.

Jim married his Mari in 1971, and she has been his partner for over 50 years. They attended a convention in Bakersfield in 1989 and fell in love with this town. They purchased some land to save for the future. They moved here in 1994.

After the sale of his business, Jim needed a job, so he went through training to be a correctional officer. He worked for the City of Taft in that capacity until he retired in 2007.

He was not finished even then. He started working for Westec teaching P.C. 832 classes for San Joaquin Valley College. For the next 6 years he traveled to campuses the entire length of the Valley.

He opened another business after that doing CCQ classes and firearms instructions for both Kern County Sheriff and the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services for the State of California.

He finally retired for the last time in 2023.

He was the father of 3 great sons, grandfather to 5 and great grandfather to 2.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, Roy Wayne, a sister, Patricia Anne McDaniel and 2 sons, James Kevin and Paul Brian.

He leaves behind his wife, Mari, his son Christopher, two daughters-in-law, Julie Carroll and Gale Carroll, and grandchildren, Tonya, Renee, Pauly, Sheridan and Aiden and great grandchildren, Ivan and Madison.