Carrie Lydia Cavanaugh-Keyek was born on May 19, 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of three children. Her mother Sarah Margaret and Robert Emmett were both scientists and mathematicians, working in high-tech and space exploration. Childhood was spent side-by-side with her oldest brother Rob and her brother John, her only surviving family member, who currently resides in Melbourne, Florida with his wife Caroline. Her family spent her elementary years living in La Grange Park, Illinois where she attended Ogden Elementary and Park Avenue Junior High. Her family ventured west for her parents' work and landed in Encinitas, California in 1978. There she met her lifelong friend, Darci Morris, and attended Oak Crest Jr. High and San Dieguito High School and fell forever in love with the ocean. Her undergrad and graduate school years were spent at San Diego State University, where she studied finance before turning to her true lifelong passion, teaching.
In 1992, she made the wise decision (says David) to move to the Bay Area, where she immersed herself in teaching in San Francisco Unified School District and working for women-focused non-profits. She and David found each other in 1994 as neighbors in Bernal Hill in San Francisco. They’ve been inseparable since that first date on February 10th, 1994. They wasted no time in getting married at Pt. Montara Lighthouse in February of 1995 and departed on bicycles a few weeks later bound for Cabo San Lucas. After a few years back in the Bay, Liam came into their lives in September 1997. Soon after, they packed a Uhaul and departed for their new home in Jamestown, Colorado and moved into the greatest house of all time on the banks of James Creek with a 125 year-old caboose as the kids playroom. Maggie was born in Boulder in December 2000 and made the family whole. Soon after, Carrie earned her Masters in Literacy at the University of Colorado Denver and the family moved down the canyon to Boulder in 2011, landing on Grape Avenue, right around the corner from Foothill Elementary where both kids attended K-5 and Carrie taught for 17 years. Teaching ESL and Kindergarten were her passion and she gave everything to her work and students, to ‘her friends,’ as she called them. She was a tireless and bold advocate of kids in need.
Carrie has left a legacy for us to all admire, through her teaching, her passion for hiking, backpacking and trail running, gardening at altitude, and her desire to learn new things, like the banjolele and vegan cooking. She was a kind listener and, per Maggie and Liam, the best mom and person on the planet. David concurs; she was an immensely loving partner and best friend who was there for everyone, including herself.
She is survived by her hubby and partner of 30 years, David, her adoring children Liam and Maggie, her brother John Cavanaugh and sister-in-law Caroline, sister and brother-in-law, Deborah and Dean Keyek-Franssen, and their sons and partners, Nathaniel and Cristina and Jonathan and Kelsi, as well as her brother and sister-in-law, Andy and Julie Ransom-Keyek and their three children, Makenna, Nik, and Bella. Also, ever present as part of Carrie’s family are our black labs, Keely and Stella.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Carrie Cavanaugh-Keyek, please visit our flower store.
In 1992, she made the wise decision (says David) to move to the Bay Area, where she immersed herself in teaching in San Francisco Unified School District and working for women-focused non-profits. She and David found each other in 1994 as neighbors in Bernal Hill in San Francisco. They’ve been inseparable since that first date on February 10th, 1994. They wasted no time in getting married at Pt. Montara Lighthouse in February of 1995 and departed on bicycles a few weeks later bound for Cabo San Lucas. After a few years back in the Bay, Liam came into their lives in September 1997. Soon after, they packed a Uhaul and departed for their new home in Jamestown, Colorado and moved into the greatest house of all time on the banks of James Creek with a 125 year-old caboose as the kids playroom. Maggie was born in Boulder in December 2000 and made the family whole. Soon after, Carrie earned her Masters in Literacy at the University of Colorado Denver and the family moved down the canyon to Boulder in 2011, landing on Grape Avenue, right around the corner from Foothill Elementary where both kids attended K-5 and Carrie taught for 17 years. Teaching ESL and Kindergarten were her passion and she gave everything to her work and students, to ‘her friends,’ as she called them. She was a tireless and bold advocate of kids in need.
Carrie has left a legacy for us to all admire, through her teaching, her passion for hiking, backpacking and trail running, gardening at altitude, and her desire to learn new things, like the banjolele and vegan cooking. She was a kind listener and, per Maggie and Liam, the best mom and person on the planet. David concurs; she was an immensely loving partner and best friend who was there for everyone, including herself.
She is survived by her hubby and partner of 30 years, David, her adoring children Liam and Maggie, her brother John Cavanaugh and sister-in-law Caroline, sister and brother-in-law, Deborah and Dean Keyek-Franssen, and their sons and partners, Nathaniel and Cristina and Jonathan and Kelsi, as well as her brother and sister-in-law, Andy and Julie Ransom-Keyek and their three children, Makenna, Nik, and Bella. Also, ever present as part of Carrie’s family are our black labs, Keely and Stella.
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