Rita Green's Obituary
Carol Green, 72, passed away on January 6th, 2015, at home in Point Loma. She fought a 3 years bout with cancer which was filled with hope and disappointment but never without her good nature and her laughter. Carol will be missed by family and friends from Boston to the Bay Area and San Diego. Scout, her fourth Schnauzer, already misses her. Carol has loved dogs since she was in diapers and shared food with Bo, the dog next door.Carol was born on February 19, 1942, in London, Kentucky to Randy and Dana Sternberg. She was the second of three daughters, in 1045 the family moved to San Diego where her father accepted a job with Consolidated Aircraft. They lived in war housing on Frontier Street (now Sports Area Boulevard) until they were able to find a house in La Mesa. Carol went through school there graduating from Helix High School.She was attending San Diego State College when she decided to join United Airlines as a Stewardess. Based in San Francisco she started collecting new friends and her adult life began. Through her roommate, who was from Boston, she met her future husband, Russell Green, on Memorial Day weekend. He was an engineer from Woburn, Massachusetts, educated at MIT. He worked in “job shops” so he could arrange to ski most of the winter. From this group of skiers, engineers, a cop/lawyer, business woman, teachers and neighbors a great group of friends evolved. Russell left job shopping and joined Intel as an engineer.On December 7, 1968, Carol and Russell married in Carmel, California. They soon bought a home in Mountain View where they lived until Russell died in May of 1995, on Memorial Day weekend. One morning, while she sat in her flower filled garden, a Monarch butterfly flitted around her. Carol decided it was a message from Russell telling her he was OK. One year later, again on Memorial Day weekend, Carol was on her brother in law’s boat, in the middle of La Playa Cove in Point Loma. A monarch butterfly flew into the boat’s cabin, made a circle and flew out. Thus began her huge collection of butterflies. Now everybody gives her butterflies.After Russell died Carol retired and began looking for a house in San Diego in Point Loma where her older sister lives. Each time she came to town the agent had a house to show her. One day Carol called her sister and asked her to go look at a house that was going to sell quickly and she couldn’t get down to San Diego in time. It turned out that the house and location were perfect. Via phone and fax Carol made this major purchase, sight unseen.It was a good move. She has many dear friends in her neighborhood and in Point Loma. In 2002 Carol was selected to be queen of her street’s annual New Year’s Day Parade. This year when she was sick, the parade honored her by blowing kisses and waving her as she sat in her window watching the 2015 Parade and waving back. Her house was later decorated with most of the one thousand balloons used during the parade. Many participants wore green and/or butterfly wings. She died five years later.We’ll miss this smiling blonde girl who loved fine music, traveling musicals, the symphony, the concerts at Humphries, her CD’s. She craved smoked wild salmon with tartar sauce from The Fish Market. She also loved St. Jon knits, her garden, her dogs, a good haircut, Carmel by the Sea, Avalon, Idlylcild, and Nantucket, watching baseball, wearing her Red Sox baseball caps, summer beer can races on San Diego Bay, and a good martini with two lives. Most of all she loved and cherished her family and friends… and we liked ourselves best when we were with her. Her parents, Randolph and Dana Sternberg are both deceased and are buried at Greenwood Memorial Park.She is survived by her sisters, Mary McKinnon and Cheryl Caldon and their husbands; her nephew, Marcus Rabwin and his wife and their two children.Contributions in Carol’s name may be made to the USO lounge at the San Diego airport where she was once an active volunteer.
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