M. Agatha Carroll (Keohane), 96, died peacefully at home in Chatham, Massachusetts, formerly of North Haven Connecticut, Tuesday, April 25, 2017, of natural causes. Agatha was born September 30, 1920 in Boston to M. Agatha (Swan) Keohane and John S. Keohane. She grew up in Chestnut Hill, Newton, the oldest of an eventual family of nine. Agatha attended grammar school at Mount Alvernia Academy continuing at Notre Dame Academy, then situated in Back Bay, and matriculated at Emmanuel College, graduating in 1942. An English major, she intended to study at Oxford, England, upon graduating, but World War II had started and she did graduate work at Boston College instead. She then went to Katherine Gibbs for their one-year program for college graduates. Agatha had numerous secretarial positions in Boston and then became the first Registrar of the newly formed Boston College School of Nursing. She left Boston for Manhattan in the latter 40s and married Anthony G. Carroll there, whom she had known since childhood; they had one daughter Paula. The family moved to North Haven Connecticut in 1953, where her husband's company, Brulin Industrial Chemicals, sent him. Agatha went back to work in 1956 for a small chemical engineering company that was eventually bought by the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. She and Anthony had 15 happy years together before he died in 1965 and she became a single parent. Over the years at Upjohn, she advanced to Sales Supervisor overseeing all the company's fine chemical sales fulfillmentan unusual position for a woman in a male-dominated profession. She was sometimes the only woman at national industry meetings. Agatha retired in 1988 and continued to pursue her many civic interests and activities. To say Agatha was active in her community is an understatement. She joined the Garden Club in 1956 and held many offices until finally accepting the position of President when she retired. She was given a "lifelong membership" when she left North Haven in 1998 to move back to Massachusetts to be near her family. As president, she led members of the club to volunteer at the Connecticut Hospice Facility in Branford, disassembling donated funeral flowers and redesigning them for arrangements for the patients' rooms. She was a true conservationist early on and was appointed to the North Haven Conservation Committee. Agatha also ran the North Haven Earth Day when it was newly established in the 70s. In the later 60s Agatha was active in civil rights programs in New Haven hosting African American groups at her home and volunteering with FISH. She was a faithful member of her church, St. Barnabas in North Haven, but was also involved in many ecumenical activities with the other churches in town. In the late 80s she became a board member of the Federation of Garden Clubs with the job of coordinating with the seven state parks in Connecticut to ascertain how the various garden clubs could serve them. Agatha was on the North Haven Republican Town Committee for a number of years and was a member of the board of the Cemetery Commission in the town. She belonged to the League of Women Voters for many years and was a member of the New Haven chapter of the Civitan organization. One of Agatha's biggest achievements was serving on the North Haven Interfaith Housing Committee from the 60s to the final building in the early 80s using HUD seed financing. It was a long sometimes frustrating 20-year work, getting property, raising funds, and overcoming numerous obstacles to get low-income housing for townspeople who wanted stay in the community but needed smaller, less expensive housing. It has been a successful senior community for over 35 years. All of these activities she attributed to her education by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur who instruct their students to go out and serve their communities when they graduate. She was loyal to all her schools and attended her Emmanuel and Notre Dame reunions; she was a member of the Cape Cod Emmanuel Club. Agatha loved art, theater, music, reading, gardening, travel, the numerous family dogs, and a good party. In her later years she often went to the New York Metropolitan Opera and many plays and musicals in the city with friends, activities she had done in Manhattan when she lived there. Agatha traveled in Europe and Canada, often with the particular purpose of visiting gardens in different countries. She was also an avid museum attendee and a member of the MFA. Agatha enjoyed 25 years in the family's vacation home in Chatham, finally making it her primary home in 2012. There she enjoyed the beach, symphony, and theater. She was true to her membership in "The Greatest Generation," was an elegant lady with a twinkle in her eye and great sense of humor. She was a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, aunt, cousin, sister, and friend to many. She will be missed by all. In addition to her daughter Paula and her husband Dale H. Eckerman, Jr., Agatha leaves a brother, Laurence J. Keohane of Boston, and a sister, Marie Finnegan of Harvard, Massachusetts. Besides her parents, she was predeceased by her brothers, John S. Keohane, Jr., Thomas S. Keohane, Joseph Paul Keohane, and Frank Keohane; her sisters Barbara Houlihan Cole and Patricia A. Keohane. She also leaves many loving nieces, nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews. Family and friends are invited to celebrate Agatha's life on Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at Bell O'Dea Funeral Home, 376 Washington Street, Brookline from 3:00-7:00 pm. A funeral Mass will be said at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church, 28 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, Wednesday, May 3, at 11:00 am. Interment immediately following in Holyhood Cemetery, 587 Heath Street, Brookline. The family wishes to thank all her caregivers, Karyn Hoya, Cindy Burke, Nancy Shay, and Cheryl Burnham as well as the staff at Caregiver Homes, Bayada Home Health Care, and Broad Reach Hospice. A special and loving thank you to Wendi Dings who was a constant caregiver, companion, and friend. Donations in Agatha's name may be made to Emmanuel College, 400 The Fenway, Boston, MA. 02115.