Carolyn Smith Kyle
A bright light has gone out in Santa Barbara, CA and Chatham, MA. Carolyn Smith Kyle has passed from metastatic Melanoma on August 17, 2021 at her home in Santa Barbara. Happily, all of Carolyn’s family had spent quality time with her in the last few weeks of her life Carolyn was born on October 8, 1941 in Bakersfield, CA to Norman James Smith and Irma Thorne. After 10 years living in Portland, Seattle and Oakland, the family returned to their origins in the East and lived in Kearny, NJ. Carolyn graduated from Kearny High School in 1959. Carolyn’s many friends date back to that era. Carolyn next graduated from Katherine Gibbs and worked as a legal secretary for the largest law firm in NJ, McCarter & English in Newark. At 21 Carolyn met William (Bill) Kyle at the Jersey Shore and three years later in 1966, they married. Carolyn is survived by her husband, Bill, their two sons Chris and Keith their wives, Martyntje and Amber, respectively and four wonderful grandchildren, Max, Ben, Caitlyn and Cameron.
Carolyn loved her family so much and they were so proud of their Mom/Grandma. With a life on both coasts in California and Cape Cod, Massachusetts Carolyn had many friends and she dearly loved them all. Carolyn was a long-term member – and President – of the Volunteer League of the San Fernando Valley as well as spending many years on the Advisory Board of the Japanese Garden of Los Angeles in its formative years. The garden is the showpiece for what can be created with recycled water.
Carolyn was curious and creative and she traveled with Bill and family worldwide. Both worked in the travel industry, with Carolyn working as a travel agent for over 30 years.
In Chatham, MA Carolyn and Bill’s close friends were in The Chatham Walkers, The Monomoy Yacht Club and the Oyster Pond condos where they lived five months a year for 16 lovely summers. In Santa Barbara, CA Carolyn had many dear friends from the Santa Barbara Social Club and The Graduates.
A wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and friend to all, Carolyn would do anything for anyone she knew. She was always positive and upbeat even while fighting through two different cancers over 6 years. Carolyn was an incredibly courageous woman in the way she handled this terrible disease. Her dear friends and relatives loved her from far and wide, East Coast to West Coast, New England to Florida. She will be forever missed by all she knew and especially by her husband and very close family. In place of flowers. The family requests that donations be made in Carolyn’s name to either the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA or Ridley Tree Cancer Center in Santa Barbara, CA.
For online condolences please visit forevermissed.com/carolyn-kyle