Carole Wilbanks Mabry

Mrs. Carole Wilbanks Mabry of Gainesville passed away on July 7, 2023 at Emory Hospital  after an extended illness. The family will receive friends at Memorial Park Riverside Chapel on Sunday July 9, 2023 at 2:30 with a service to follow in the chapel of the funeral home at 4:00. Graveside services will be held after the service at Alta Vista Cemetery.

Carole was born Edith Carole Wilbanks on July 5th,1938 to Eula Anderson Wilbanks Pitts. When Carole was a child, her mother married Bill Pitts who was a loving and supportive parent to her until he passed. Carole was the youngest of 4 children and grew up in Commerce, Atlanta and Gainesville. She graduated from Gainesville High School and went on to attend West Georgia College. However, her greatest dream was to always be a wife and mother. While she was a college student she met the unequivocal love of her life Billy Ray Mabry at Vogel State Park. They were engaged in 1958 and married in 1959. Billy Ray was a career Navy man and took Carole far away from her Georgia home to Maine and Florida. While Carole was always a homebody, she knew her home was always with her husband. They shared a daughter, Tammy and a son, Tracy. Even though she was far from the warmth of her home in Gainesville while in Maine, she helped to create a community of service families that stay connected to this day.

Carole was a great cook and loved crafting, crocheting and knitting. Her grandchildren lovingly remember watching her make her country breakfasts featuring her delicious biscuits wearing her old blue robe. They recall that she never measured anything but those biscuits turned out perfectly every time. The grandchildren also cherish their unique and bedazzled Nana-made Christmas stockings.

As great a mother as she was, she was even better suited to grandmotherhood. Her oldest granddaughter fondly recalls calling Nana to come rescue her from her annoying brothers whenever she needed some Nana time. Nana never let her down. Her house was always home to her grandchildren and all her friends, as long as you didn’t  use her fancy towels to dry your grubby hands. Her grandson played many a game of Candyland with Nana for hours on end. Though he thought at the time that he was  boss at Candyland, he now realizes Nana let him win.

Carole was a devout Christian and a long-time member of First Christian Church. As a member of FCC she became very involved in women’s groups that carried out service projects.  It was as a member of these groups that she put her love of crafting and needlework and her heart for service together. She made ugly quilts, blankets, and other necessary items for the homeless, nursing home patients and those in need. She never wanted to see children go without, so she also coordinated Christmas toy distribution for children as far away as Kentucky.

She always preferred to do service projects discreetly so that attention was never drawn to herself.

          She is preceded in death by her parents, her siblings Lillian, Gaines and Millie, and her husband of fifty years, Billy Ray. She is survived by her daughter Tammy Snelling, her husband Mike Snelling and her son Tracy, her grandchildren Elizabeth, Ryan, Luke, Matty, and Molly and nieces.

Memorial Park North Riverside Chapel 989 Riverside Drive Gainesville, Georgia is in charge of arrangements. For online condolences www.memorialparkfuneralhomes.com