Mary Halliday Karoll

Mary Halliday Karoll of Bethany, 83, passed away peacefully at Shady Knoll Health Center in Seymour, CT, on August 4, 2022. Mary was born on May 11, 1939, in Westerly Hospital, Rhode Island the only child of Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy Daniel Edward Toland and his wife, Mary Helen Toland. Mary grew up in Groton, CT, and graduated from Robert E. Fitch High School in Groton, where she was class valedictorian. She graduated from Teacher's College of Connecticut, having known since she was in 1st grade that she wanted to be a teacher. After graduating, she married Edward Haines Karoll, her husband of 62 years, a teacher for 38 years at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, CT. Mary taught for 5 years at Oxford Grammar School, and then left to have a family, first giving birth to her son, Mark Marriott Karoll in 1965, and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Karoll, in 1967. She then taught at New Haven Hebrew Day School for 26 years, retiring in 1991. She was a beloved, extremely creative teacher, famous for her plays and puppet shows she wrote and directed every year, and for the way she could always find and nurture a special talent in every child she taught. She leaves behind her husband Edward H. Karoll, her daughter Mary Elizabeth Karoll of New York City, and her son Mark Karoll of Henderson, Nevada, and his wife Yuki Karoll. Services and burial will be held at the convenience of the family. If you like to make a donation in Mary's honor, you may consider sending a monetary gift to Clark Memorial Library, 538 Amity Road, Bethany, CT, 06524 or through the funeral home, to be used for the children's section, as Mary loved both children and books, and sharing her love for learning with the children she taught. Cemetery Details At conveinance of the family