Mark R. Carroll

Mark Carroll was known for his gentle spirit, kind heart and whip-smart sense of humor that often-left friends and family members doing double-takes.  

“Honesty is not the best policy,” he once said, which was his way of saying it’s sometimes best to keep one’s mouth shut, as opposed to outright lying, which he didn’t advocate.  It was more his outward expression of the notion that if you don’t have something good to say about someone, don’t say anything at all. 

“If you want to be a really good practical joker,” Mark said on another occasion, having given the subject deep thought over his decades as a practical joker, “you have to be mentally and emotionally prepared for the very real possibility that someone will die.”  

Another time, when one of his boyhood friends, Tim Soward, completed the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process required for men and women to join the Roman Catholic church, Mark was right there with him.  “I went through all the sacraments, then it was time for my first confession,” Tim recalls. “I was pretty nervous.  I said to Mark, ‘I have 36 years of sins.  This might take a long time.’  Mark said, ‘Just tell them the worst thing you ever did -- but don’t mention my name.’”  

His humor had an edge, but that was his way of balancing out his generous, thoughtful nature -- and to avoid being taken for a big softy, which he was.  Mark was a living practitioner of the Golden Rule.  His attitude was, “What do you need?  How can I help?”  He accepted that we all have flaws, but he focused more on the goodness he saw in others.  In this way, he drew people to himself without trying.

He retired as a cost control manager for Belcan.  Prior to that, he worked 17 years as an editorial clerk for The Kentucky Post, where his responsibilities centered largely on visiting courthouses throughout Northern Kentucky, gathering information for The Town Crier.  He wished he had a quarter for every time someone called asking him to please keep their name out of the Town Crier.

Mark died March 10, 2024, after a long, slow degenerative disease.  A long-time Ludlow resident, he was 67 years old. He was completely devoted to his wife, Kathleen, as well as their four children, Deanna (Chris) Ritter, Lee (Laura) Jensen, Andrew, and Benjamin Carroll; five grandchildren, Brianne, Alex, Sarah, Ethan, and Caiden; sisters, Joanie Hay, Barb Jones, and Betty Jo Redix. 

He is preceded in death by sister, Dixie Mano.

Please join us to celebrate Mark Carroll’s life from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 14, at the Edgewood Liberty Hall, 550 Freedom Park Drive, Edgewood Ky.