Carole Ann Veney- Booker, A Summary of Her Amazing Life…
The second born of eight children, Carole Booker was born, Carole Ann Kendrick on December 19, 1939 in a small rooming house in Washington DC. Her mother, Agnes C. Coats, gave birth with the assistance of only her land lady, who cut the umbilical cord after Carole was born. Her father, Robert E. Kendrick, also referred to as Ike, returned home later that evening from a poker game and called a Doctor to care for his new born baby girl. For an unknown reason, Carole’s mother begged the Doctor not to report Carole’s birth, and therefore, to this day, there is no true record of her birth.
Following a bitter break up from Carole’s father one month after she was born, her mother packed up and took Carole to stay with Ike’s parents in Asbury Park New Jersey. There, Agnes met and became friends with a coworker named Pauline. Pauline’s daughter, Ellen, use to baby-sit Carole so Agnes could work. In May of 1940, Agnes informed Pauline that she needed to go back to DC on business and asked if she could take care of Carole until she returned. Pauline agreed to keep her but Agnes never returned for her baby. It would be five years before Carole’s father would come for her, only to be turned away and told never to return.
After graduating from Asbury Park High school in 1957, Carole learned that her birth parents lived in Washington DC and arrangements were made for her to live with them while she attended American University in fall of that year. In college, she studied to be an interpreter and a journalist but those dreams were put on hold after just attending school for six months. Carole’s relationship with her birth parents went sour. She could not afford to continue her college education and her parents were not willing to help her so she dropped out and got a job working in the school’s cafeteria. Eventually, the situation with her parents got worse and Carole was forced to live with a friend until she could get on her feet. During this rough period, Carole began to experience her first symptoms of depression, bursting out in tears and having many sleepless nights.
Carole met her first husband, William Veney, from Luray, Virginia, at a party given at her friend’s house shortly after moving in. William was described as a very handsome man. The ladies loved him! But once he laid eyes on Carole that was it. Relatives reported that William and Carole were a very happy couple. “He spoiled me rotten” claimed Carole. They began a relationship and were married on September 22, 1959. She gave birth to her first son, Mark Elliot Veney on November 25th of that year. Three years later on August 28,1962, she had her second son, William David Veney. Carole and William were happily married until his untimely death in 1967, resulting from kidney failure brought about by cancer. Twenty-seven year old Carole Ann was devastated by the loss of her husband and was faced with raising her two boys alone. Following this terrible ordeal and a string of psychotic experiences which included hallucinations and suicidal thoughts, she was diagnosed with a mental illness called paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression which caused her to be in and out of the hospital throughout her life and her children were often sent away to foster care or to stay with relatives. “I recall one time as a kid my brother and I were sent to this foster home. I’ll never forget how terrible we were treated. They made me and Mark sit outside in the cold and eat a hotdog like the family pet while they sat around the table with the family and enjoyed steak and potatoes. They were just using us for the money” claims Carole’s son, David. Carole often was homeless, placed in jail, lost many good jobs and was evicted again and again, loosing everything she owned each time she had a psychotic episode.
In 1969, Carole managed to hold things together long enough to empress her second husband, James L. Booker, a very handsome blue eyed “country boy” from King & Queen Virginia, whom she married December 18, 1969. From this marriage came their first born daughter, Sally Lyndelia Booker, born September 28, 1970 in Alexandria Virginia. “I wanted a little girl so bad and he looked like he’d make a gorgeous child. He was a charming man as well. Not the love I felt with William but it was worth a try. I figured I could learn to love him” claimed Carole in a 2005 interview. After a rocky two years together, the couple went their separate ways in 1972 but never legally divorced, according to records found in 2008 following Carole’s death.
Carole spent most of her life fighting to provide for her three children but each time she got on her feet, she was struck with another set back caused by her illness.
Despite all the rough periods, Carole managed to have a secretarial career with the Federal Government for fifteen years, until she had to retire in 1990 as a result of her disability. She feels she is a survivor, having raised three healthy children who all have productive lives and being able to land on her feet time and time again, “I have experienced many tragedies and set backs in my life”, says Carole, “but I’ve also had many serendipitous experiences to balance my sorrows. So many people have helped me. My advice to my children and grandchildren is to examine their own life for examples of serendipity that encountered their painful experiences.” Carole’s charming personality won over the hearts of so many people she has met in hospitals, in her community and everywhere she goes.
In 2005 Carole reported that she was “in a transition stage of re-cooperation.” She spent most of her time reading and writing, something she has always enjoyed doing. When she passed away on July 22, 2008 she was in the process of writing her first book, which will be an autobiography of her amazing life.
This is just a summary of what is yet to come in Carole’s book, “The Truth.”
If you knew Carole and have information to offer that may be used to put the pieces together for her book please feel free to share that info on this site or contact her daughter, Sally B. Waller.
By Sally B. Waller
The Autobiography of an Amazing Woman,
CAROLE ANN VENEY- BOOKER
All Rights Reserved 2008
