Carole Ann Tillman was born on September 20, 1946 and died on March 19, 2018. She was the daughter of Thomas and Jane Barefoot. She was a graduate of Highland Park High School in Dallas, TX and the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. In 1968, she married her now ex-husband Lee Tillman, with whom she had a son, Michael, in 1977. Her career spanned disaster recovery at EDS and sales with Multiview, LETN, Questcorp and Peisner Johnson.
Carole has been a singer since before she was six years old. She sang in the choir of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation and with the Dallas Symphony Chorus. While with the Incarnation Choir and Dallas Symphony Chorus she performed in Italy, at Carnegie Hall, and in England—the latter two on two occasions. Carole also sang in Jerusalem during the 3000-year celebration of the Temple as part of the performance of Mahler's 8th symphony, the first major German work to be performed since World War II.
Travel was one of Carole’s favorite things, visiting many cities with her son as he grew up and taking a long vacation to Prague after she had stopped singing. Her other greatest enjoyments came from photography, Argentinian Tango, and being a lifelong dog lover—be it dachshunds or dobermans or spaniels or terriers or some not quite definable combination.
Carole was preceded in death by her parents Thomas and Jane, and her sister, Lisa Gay Barefoot, who suffered from Trisomy 21. Carole died at 71 from complications of advanced lung disease. She is survived by her son Michael Tillman and daughter-in-law Stephanie Tillman, as well as by many extended family and close friends who knew her to be one of the sweetest people they would ever meet.
She was regarded as cheerful and always knew the right thing to say to spread that cheer to those who needed it most. On the day she died, Carole received recognition for successfully abstaining from alcohol for 50 years. A deeply spiritual woman, she loved her Church, her choir, and her clergy. Her son and daughter-in-law were holding her hands as she said her last words before her spirit went home: a confident "I'm ready."
Funeral Services for Carole Ann Tillman will be held Friday, April 6th at 2:00p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Avenue, Dallas. A reception at the home of Michael and Stephanie Tillman will be held afterward beginning at 3:30 p.m. Carole's final resting place will be in the columbarium of the Church of the Incarnation, where her mother, Jane Barefoot, is also interred. In lieu of flowers, donations to Incarnation or to the SPCA of Texas in her honor would be appreciated.
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