Educator, activist Carol Bauman Levy, 99, is given private burial

CAROL BAUMAN LEVY, educator, community activist, friend, and devoted mother who called New Orleans home for six decades, died comfortably in her sleep in Baton Rouge on October 1, just weeks before her 100th birthday.

CAROL BAUMAN LEVY

Born in St. Louis, she attended Hamilton Elementary School and was a member of Congregation Shaare Emeth before moving with her family to Dallas in 1935. There, she was confirmed at Temple Emanu-El, graduating from Highland Park High School in 1942. She attended the University of Texas, majoring in sociology. While maintaining campus jobs through each semester of college, she nonetheless graduated in just three years.

During this time, her parents moved to New Orleans; it was on an early visit to the city in August 1943 that she first met Byron L. Levy, her destined lifelong companion. After a courtship of three years when he was in the service, and all of six dates, they married after the war and enjoyed a uniquely gratifying marriage of love and devotion for 69 fulfilling years.

The couple spent most of their lives in New Orleans, raising their five children. She was active in the community and served in leadership roles in a sweep of community organizations including the League of Women Voters, The Council of Jewish Women, the Temple Sinai Sisterhood, and the Parent Teacher Associations at her children’s schools.

Her commitment to childhood education, and especially to public schools, led to teacher accreditation in the 1960s and a career as an educational consultant lasting over twenty years as a representative for Scholastic Books. Retiring in the late 1980s, she devoted energies to new interests in gardening and calligraphy, volunteering at the New Orleans Botanical Garden at City Park and participating in activities of the New Orleans Lettering Arts Association.

In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, the couple moved to the St. James Place Retirement Community in Baton Rouge where both became active members of their new community. In Baton Rouge, as throughout her life, her characteristic enthusiasm, good cheer, and sincere concern for others enlarged her circle of friends. Throughout the years, and especially at St. James, Carol selflessly encouraged and supported her husband’s passionate dedication to art and devoted her attentions to his comfort and care.

She was preceded in death by her husband Byron in 2015 and also by her eldest daughter, Dianne, who died in the 1960s and by her fourth child, Carol Jane, who died as an infant.

She is survived by her three children, Cynthia Levy Howey (Terry) of Baton Rouge and Seal Beach, CA, Byron (Ron) Robert Levy (Ellen) of Hancock, NH, and Nancy Levy Midvidy (David) of Dobbs Ferry, NY and six grandsons.

Carol was a member of Temple Sinai in New Orleans over a span of eight decades and a more recent member of B’nai Israel in Baton Rouge.

A private service was held according to her wishes, with interment in Hebrew Rest Mausoleum in New Orleans.

To view and sign the online guest book, please visit www.lakelawnmetairie.com.