Carol Brown

Carol Bessellieu Batchelder Brown of Kerrville passed away on Sunday, June 30, 2019 at the age of 85. She was born in San Antonio to parents Alice Schuetze Bessellieu and Warren Ellis Bessellieu on September 9, 1933. Carol was raised in the church family of Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School and attended San Antonio Junior College.\r\n\r\nCarol was active in the apartment management business for 40 years starting in 1976 in San Antonio. At one time in her career she was the Resident Manager of a 384 unit apartment community and the Area Supervisor of nine additional properties . She worked for Miller Multi-Management, Compass Property Management, Murray Management, Hawaii Properties, and Multiplex Realty Resources in San Antonio and Dallas. In 1991 she moved to Kerrville to be closer to family where she managed Lime Creek, Patio, River Oaks, and La Casa for Duff Enterprises. \r\n\r\nIn 1997 Carol began the happiest association of her career. She began working for Encino Property Management with Granger MacDonald, Wanda Culpepper and Scott Weems. She managed and leased up their new Highland Oaks Apartments in Fredericksburg, TX. In 2000 Carol made her last move to their new 72 unit Meadows Apartments in Kerrville built especially for seniors. She managed the Meadows from September 2000 until December 2011 working for Alpha Barnes and then Orion Real Estate. Carol had become an expert at moving and decluttering. This was home, and she loved it. In December 2011 Carol was asked to manage and lease up another senior property The Gardens at Clearwater where she continued working full time until December 2015 when at the age of 82 illness forced her retirement.\r\n\r\nCarol loved her job and gave it her all...in early and out late, and in on Saturdays to be sure those Monday morning reports due were not lost by her computer. The sign in her office read "Because Nice Matters". Apartment management was her calling. She provided excellent customer service to her residents with kindness, efficiency, and her incredible attention to detail and organization. She mentored many young trainees and befriended many coworkers who called her "Mama". They would comfort Carol whose career began using shorthand and a manual typewriter when those frightening computer changes came along.\r\n\r\nCarol could have written a book on the life and times of eccentric apartment dwellers. In San Antonio she managed a complex filled with the good looking La Bare strippers, at another she weekly collected buckets of golf balls that sailed over the fence from the country club. In Dallas she had Haitians practicing Voodoo while in Kerrville she had to tell a resident he could not hang his future cabrito in a tree. She surprised some residents in San Antonio when she told them they could not work on their motorcycles in their living rooms. Some things are just not listed in the lease. \r\n\r\nCarol was the definition of a life well lived. Though unhappy that she could not return to work, she kept focused on staying as well and active as she could. She was strong willed and very determined...one tough little lady. This was best shown with the physical therapy team at Hilltop. She worked as hard at rehab as she did on the job with the goal to always get better and go home to the apartment she loved and her cats and flowers. Even during the rough times she brought happiness and laughter. She was fun to be with! \r\n\r\nCarol was known for her bright smile, her red glasses, her love for her pets, and her enormous green thumb. Many visited her apartment leaving with plant cuttings and cat hair. She loved the Port Aransas beach though she seldom took time off for vacation, and she was an excellent cook. She was dearly loved and will be missed by all who knew her. \r\n \r\nCarol was married and divorced twice and would quote the rhyme "change the name and not the letter, change for worse and not the better".\r\n\r\nCarol is survived by her daughters, Laura Batchelder and Kathleen Brown of Kerrville, and grandson Shaun Martinez of San Antonio. \r\n\r\nMemorial service will be at 2 p.m., Friday, August 2, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church in the Schreiner Chapel with the Reverend Rob Lohmeyer officiating.\r\n\r\nIn lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the Freeman-Fritts Animal Shelter, 515 Spur 100, Kerrville, TX 78028 or The Big Fix, P.O. Box 294003, Kerrville, TX 78028 locally or the animal related charity of your choice. \r\n \r\nThe family would like the thank Dr. Ann Rosson, caregiver and friend Cathy Robb, the tremendous Hilltop therapy team that Carol loved, special nurses and aides at Hilltop Village and favorite caregivers with Home Instead. Thank you also to those friends and coworkers whose calls and visits meant so much to Carol these last years. You lifted her spirit and shared your love. And lastly a special thanks to employer and friend Granger MacDonald for his loving kindness, support and friendship.