Ann Flanders Carroll

 Ann Flanders Carroll, a retired Dallas-area schoolteacher and longtime resident of Granbury, Texas, died Thursday (Jan. 30). She was 81. 

Ann was born in Columbia, Miss., and grew up in Columbia, Jacksonville, Fla., and Hattiesburg, Miss. In her youth, she loved riding horses and ballet, and during holiday seasons frequently remembered her childhood role in a production of “The Nutcracker.” 

During World War II, the family lived on Florida’s Atlantic coast and Ann vividly recalled using blackout curtains every night to hide shoreline buildings from patrolling German submarines.

In the mid-1950s, the family moved to Dallas and Ann went to work at the Chance Vought Aircraft plant in Grand Prairie. There she met Bob Carroll and they married in 1957. 

Together, they raised three daughters in the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff. Bob took night classes working on his college degree, and when the girls got older, Ann enrolled in college as well, graduating summa cum laude from Dallas Baptist College (now University).

She spent the next 25 years teaching elementary school students, most often third graders, at Tyler Street Christian Academy and in the De Soto public schools. 

After Ann retired in 2001, she and Bob moved to a house on a hill in Granbury. Not only did it have great sunset views, there was a separate building for Bob’s office and a treehouse for the grandchildren. Ann and Bob dove right into civic life, playing Mr. and Mrs. Claus during the holidays, delivering Meals on Wheels and engaging in activities at Granbury First United Methodist Church. 

Her classroom habits were always close at hand and occasionally friends or family would get the “Mrs. Carroll” look that wordlessly conveyed her feelings about something. She enjoyed sending cards and notes she penned at a small cream-colored wooden desk, its drawers stuffed with pencils, notepads, sticky paper, address books and countless jars of brightly colored paper clips. 

Bob and Ann also enjoyed working on their house, Ann usually putting a fresh coat of paint on something, and they spent time traveling to see their daughters’ families and historic places in Texas. They slowed down when Bob’s health began to decline, but still joined friends for a weekly Thursday dinner at Granbury restaurants. Bob died in January 2018. 

Ann made several family trips after that until her own health began to fade and in late 2018, she moved to Flower Mound, near her middle daughter. 

Ann is survived by her three daughters, Kathleen Carroll (Steve Twomey), Cynthia Carroll Ziegler (James Ziegler) and Nola Carroll Oliver (John Oliver). She also is survived by grandchildren Nicholas Twomey, Morgan Ziegler Hudson (James Hudson), Aspen Ziegler, Isaac Oliver (Amanda Oliver), Annalise Oliver, and one great-grandson, James Gray Hudson. 

There will be no public service. 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations may be made in honor of Ann Carroll to Meals on Wheels Hood County, P.O. Box 849, Granbury, TX 76048, 817-573-5533