Carol M (McGown) Blaine

Carol Ross McGown Blaine, born in Houston to parents Charlotte (nee Rotan) and Thomas “Debo” McGown, Carol was raised in her personal playground swinging from the rafters of house under construction in the early River Oaks area.

She rode horses at her Gran’s Cricket Hollow Farm when the Galleria/San Felipe area was open field. When she was five years old, Carol played Mary in the Christmas Pageant; the special feeling that experience evoked stayed with her the rest of her life. Christmas always brought back that special memory.

Carol went to high school in Chatham, VA at the Chatham Hall School for Girls which greatly shaped her life values. Carol was a truth-seeker and a truth=speaker. Chatham Hall encouraged and solidified those character traits. Carol developed a great love for words and how language could articulate thoughts. Is was said of her, “If a one-syllable word would do the trick, Carol would use a five-syllable word!” Carol made her debut in Houston before attending Wheaton College for a year. When she came home on holiday, a friend attending UT invited her to a dinner of chicken-fried steak, Carol transferred home to Texas the next semester!

In college, Carol met a young man—Robert M. Blaine. They married and settled in Houston. Carol began marriage as a homemaker and young mother of three healthy children under the age of four. Carol later decided to pursue a career in education, and throughout her teaching career, taught every age group from K-12, including challenged students as well as gifted students and even exchange students. She taught in private schools and public schools in Houston. During these years of teaching and getting her kids from one practice to another, Carol enjoyed a
growing spiritual life at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church. She entered the first class of FinD School for Spiritual Direction. She finished as a certified spiritual director. She then went on to study healing prayer at the Francis McNutt facility in Florida. Carol engaged in a 30+ year of vibrant healing ministry, touching many lives with her prayers and counseling. Jesus was her best friend and she spoke to Him and of Him all the time.

After the death of her husband, Rob, Carol answered the call to become an Episcopal priest. After seminary she served in several churches, first in Marlin, TX and then in Houston and surrounding suburbs of Houston. She trained for Interim ministry shortly before her retirement using those skills to help churches transition the process of calling a new priest after the loss through whatever
circumstances of their previous priest.

She retired from ministry and made the move to Kerrville, TX to enjoy the rest of her life. Carol had been coming all her life to a river house her grandmother bought in 1943. Spending time with her Gran in her cowgirl boots and toting her cap pistol filled many days with joy, and ending up near her beloved Hunt house, “Hazelbecken”, was always her dream. Carol donned her clergy robes once again to serve St. Boniface Episcopal Church in Comfort, TX for five years. Carol always opened a service with the
invitation, “Come, Holy Spirit!” People quickly learned of her love for and friendship with Jesus.

Upon learning of her diagnosis of Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer in 2020, Carol’s beautiful example was to ask God to use the disease for His glory. She was joyful throughout her disease, surprising doctors and nurses, family and friends with her vigor, earning her the title, “No Pain Blaine” at the Oncology Clinic.

More than two years later, Carol left us peacefully after a day filled with friends dropping by to tell her how she had influenced their lives and their own spirituality. We are all better for having known her.

Carol leaves her three children: Elizabeth Gleason, a devoted nurse; Tom Blaine, a successful contractor; and Will Blaine, an inspired and inventive IT problem-solver. She leaves their loved ones: Dave Lewis, Leslie Blaine, and Jennifer Blaine. Finally, she leaves three grandsons who totally stole her heart: Tucker and Walker Blaine, and Christopher Blaine. Integrity, truth, and devotion are the legacy she leaves her family and her many friends. The joy of the Holy Spirit she left with everyone she met. She always desired that once one saw and felt her joy in the Lord, it would take root in their own lives.

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