Carolyn Riley Smith Mitchell's Obituary
Carolyn Riley Smith Mitchell went to be with her husband Jerry, her father “Tiny”, and the Lord on July 25, 2025.
Born June 29, 1940 in Graniteville, South Carolina, it didn’t take long for “Slim” to make her way to Washington, D.C.
In the early Sixties, she held the distinction of being the only non-Tennessean working for Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr.
Often, “Little Al” and his Harvard roomie Tommy could be found sitting on her office desk. For a time, she would regularly race Bobby Kennedy from the Senate Office Building after work into Alexandria – and despite being outmatched in horsepower in her little green VW Beetle, her fearlessness and grit often got her to the finish line, first. In an astonishing feat of legerdemain of his own, Jerry Mitchell managed to win her heart and hand, and in 1970 the two returned to his hometown of Memphis, where they set about cultivating a beautiful and sweet and bright and loving home, filled with laughter and music and wide-ranging conversation and many many many books. She never quite outgrew her childhood goal of reading all the books worth reading, as her ample collection of first editions and friendships with first-rate authors attests.
Whether at home or abroad, her warmth and openness cultivated a wide-ranging garden of friends.
She was the epitome of grace and subtlety.
She was the finest Mother a guy could ever ask for.
And she will deeply missed by her son Justin, her grandchildren Grace, Jack, and Matthis, and by all who knew her.
Godspeed, Sweet Caroline: until we meet again.
Private burial at Memorial Park Cemetery.
Celebration of Life details will be posted at
a later date.
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