Carolyn Leonard - Community Leader Until The End, But How Do We Remember Her?

The last time I spoke with Carolyn Leonard was four months ago. We were moving to Seattle after living in Portland for nearly two decades, and she was one friend I could not leave without saying goodbye to.

Carolyn was 80 years old, and had been ailing from the effects of a stroke for the last year. When I met her at the end of March, she had become mostly bed-bound at her home in North Portland..

Five minutes into the conversation, Carolyn was asking me how she could get a copy of the video I made, “Stopping the Silent Killer,” about the blood pressure epidemic among African Americans, saying that she was going to circulate it in the various North Portland churches, and restart the “Beat the BP” program, one that we started to spread awareness about blood pressure control among African Americans. Now that her granddaughter was training to be a nurse, Carolyn said she would get her involved in the project. 

That was Carolyn. Always thinking about what else she could do for the community, even as she herself lay dying in bed. Always an educator – always proud of her grandkids, or any kid getting a good education. Always a community leader thinking about how their education would benefit the community.

I met Carolyn in April 2012. She was retiring after serving four decades as a math teacher, a cluster superintendent and compliance officer in Portland Public Schools. I was a parent involved in the effort to stop the abrupt closure of Harriet Tubman, my daughters’ all girls, and predominantly African-American school.

As a graduate of an all-girls high school in the 50’s, a straight A student, and a math major, Carolyn was a witness to historic inequities in education in the district. I meanwhile, was a naive Indian immigrant who shared none of that history, someone who thought merely protesting and giving  testimonies to the School Board, would change a district pattern to open and close, configure and re-configure schools in Portland. It was Carolyn who educated me that this situation was nothing new to schools in North Portland.

So when Tubman was shut down, for a few years Carolyn and I ran an all-girls’ program for math, media and leadership called Girls Lead, to help girls transition.

When I told her about a Tubman girl who was unhoused, she gave her a room and board in her house for 8 months for free, without asking any questions. When my husband  lamented about how blood pressure was the root cause of heart failure, stroke and kidney failure which was killing so many in the African American community, Carolyn stepped up to build an awareness program called Beat the BP.

In spite of her age, it seemed there was not a cause that Carolyn didn’t step in to fight, and not a person in need that she turned away.

She would always tell me--“If you call me in the middle of the night to come out and dig, I’ll be there with a shovel!”

All her life Carolyn gave her time, money and energy generously to fix various family and social issues.

She was part of a rare species, a generation that has no presence in social media, but knew how to connect with a lot of people in the real world, to do real good. But the best part of being in Carolyn’s company was not just her empathy, but her sense of humor. The only times I found myself laughing out loud was when I was with Carolyn.

I was in Portland on July 27 to see my daughter and heard Carolyn’s health had really declined, and that she had not eaten or opened her eyes in days. When I went to see her, I missed hearing her crack a joke, or talk about what she wanted to do next. As she lay silently,  I could see her eyeballs move when I called her name, but she didn’t open her eyes.

That night Carolyn passed away.

For someone like me, who left my home country three decades ago, Carolyn’s friendship gave me a sense of purpose and belonging which made Portland a second home.

Portland will never be the same for me without her.

Knowing Carolyn, she would say the best way to remember her is to be engaged in the community, to advocate for equity--wherever that might be. To try and leave the world a little better than you found it, for someone else. Like she did.

—Jyothi Gaddam

A celebration of Carolyn Leonard’s life will be held on
August 17 at 12 p.m. at
New Song Community Church
2511 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland, OR.