Carol Boling Merritt

Carol Boling Merritt, age 56, died on October 28, 2025. She was born in Coral Gables, Miami, Florida on March 30, 1969. She is survived by her husband Greg Merritt, her sons Benjamin Luke Chaffin and Matthew Karsten Chaffin, her sister Angelica Rose and her husband Erin Honeycutt, her niece Aurelia Rose, her aunt Birgitte von Benzon and uncle Per Kildahl, and her parents, William R. Boling and Annette K. Boling, her step-daughters Kelsey Kay and her husband Curtis and Hannah Lord and her husband Greg, and 8 grandchildren.

She was a graduate of St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School, the Bartram School, and Salem College in Winston Salem, North Carolina, where she was President of the Archways Choral Group. She was an avid tennis player at the Florida Yacht Club and elsewhere and had been captain of the Club’s women’s A Team. She had many friends who came to see her in droves and to help during her recent illness.

Carol majored in Communications at Salem College. Her first job in Jacksonville was with The Financial News and Daily Record where she was a reporter. On Mondays she would attend The Rotary Club of Jacksonville meeting, have lunch with her dad, and write up the speaker’s message for the Tuesday edition of the paper. She then spent two years in communications at University of Florida Hospital, ten years at Mayo Clinic, and a short time at Wolfson Childrens Hospital before retiring.

While at Mayo she was the spokesperson for the Hospital when Billy Graham was a patient. She sat on the corner of his bed, and he blessed her second son who was yet unborn.

There will be a funeral service on Saturday November 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM at St. Mark’s
Episcopal Church followed by a reception at Leatherbury Hall.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society.