A lover of the arts and world cultures, Carolyn Snow Newman Kait, of State College, and formerly of Alexandria, Va., and Lakewood, N.J., died peacefully on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010, at Fairways at Brookline in State College.
Born Dec. 26, 1914, in Lakewood, N.J., Carolyn was a daughter of the late Judge and Freeholder Harry Ellsworth Newman and Fannie May Mickle of Lakewood and West Point Island, N.J. She was a direct descendant of Richard Snow, who immigrated to Woburn, Mass. from Barnstaple, England in the early 1640. She was a granddaughter of John S. Mickle and Carrie Adelia Snow, of Point Pleasant, N.J. Carolyn attended Douglass College, which today is part of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
In the summer of 1938, she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the ship HMS Aquitania to participate in a college student three-month bicycle excursion throughout pre-war Europe. Carolyn recorded her keen observations in a daily diary, now a historically significant observation of the period. This adventure ignited a love of world travel and cultures that she enjoyed her entire life.
In 1940, Carolyn wed Harry Carl Kait, an attorney from Red Bank, N.J, to whom she remained married until his death in 1998. While she was pregnant with their first child in 1943, her husband was sent to Europe to join the World War II as an Army JAG Corps officer; they were not reunited until after his return from Europe three years later. During their wartime separation, Carolyn worked as an editor and journalist for her family's paper, The Lakewood Daily Times and Journal, where she was among the first to receive the teletype announcement that the atom bomb had been dropped in Japan. At the time, no one knew what an atom bomb was, and she recalled the staff musing about its meaning. For the next 20 years, the military family lived in Japan, Washington, D.C. and Germany, and traveled extensively throughout Asia, north Africa and Europe.
After retiring in Alexandria, Va.,, Carolyn was active in her church and community. In 2000, she moved with her daughter to State College, where at the age of 88, she began painting in watercolor. She displayed a one-woman show at Brookline to enthusiastic audiences charmed by her strong sense of color and composition.
She is survived by two sons, Geoffrey C. Kait, of Falls Church, Va., and Richard E. Kait, of Cincinnati, and his daughter, Chelsea Snow, of Fairfax Va.; a daughter, Joyce Snow Waterman, of State College, and her children, Brent and Carrie Snow, of Philadelphia, and David, his wife, Nicole Tepper, and their children, Gabryelle Snow and Calen, of Wynnewood. She is also survived by her sister, Marion Newman Cowan, of Gulf Breeze, Fla. She was preceded in death by two sisters, Joyce Newman Carey and Jean Newman Jones; and three brothers, Harry Ellsworth Newman Jr., John Mickle Newman and Woodrow Wilson Newman.
Carolyn will be remembered for her unwavering love, beautiful smile and lovely spirit.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the State College Home Nursing Agency Hospice, 450 Windmere Dr, Suite 100, State College, PA 16801 or to your local hospice.
At the convenience of the family, a funeral service will be held at the interment site of her late husband, Harry Carl Kait (Colonel, U.S. Army – Retired), Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.