Linda L. Carberry
GUILDERLAND — Linda Louise Carberry, a professional caregiver who was devoted to her daughter and granddaughter, died peacefully at home in her sleep on Monday, Aug. 5, 2019.
“Linda was an exceptionally kind person, with a wonderful, off-beat sense of humor,” said her oldest sister, Kathy Dillon. “She was quick-witted.”
“Hilarious,” chimed in her mother, Bev Carberry. “She was also generous … and very unique.”
“She was kind and sweet,” said her sister, Mary Moller.
“She loved caring for people,” said Ms. Dillon. “She went above and beyond. She’d give you the shirt off her back. She was just devoted to the people she cared for.”
Ms. Carberry was born in Buffalo and raised in Altamont. Her father, Jerry Carberry, worked for an office-improvement business, which had him moving quite a bit. “Two of our daughters are Hoosier girls,” born in Indiana, he said.
The Carberrys had five daughters and a son; Linda was their third child. Once settled in Altamont, Mr. Carberry served as chief of the Altamont Fire Department and also as a fire commissioner. He worked for the town of Guilderland as a fire inspector.
Mrs. Carberry worked as a school nurse, at Altamont Elementary School, and at Guilderland’s junior high and high school.
Linda Carberry went to St. Madeleine Sophie School on Carman Road in Guilderland and then went on to graduate from Guilderland High School.
All of the Carberry girls played softball and their father took them to games in the back of his pickup truck. “We played cut-throat Monopoly games, and cards, and all kinds of board games,” said Ms. Dillon.
“We went sleigh-riding and had family movie night. We did everything as a family,” said Ms. Moller.
Linda Carberry loved music and going to concerts, her sisters said; she saw Errol Smith in concert many times and also liked The Moody Blues.
Ms. Carberry earned an associate’s degree in gerontology from Maria College. She worked first as a chef in a nursing home and then changed careers to become a caregiver.
“She was a single parent and her daughter was a single parent,” said Ms. Dillon. “She took good care of them both … Her daughter, Bernadette, has some disabilities. They did everything together … they exercised together; they cooked together.”
Ms. Carberry was known as “the Queen of the Crockpot,” her sisters said. “She loved to cook,” said Ms. Dillon. “She could feed a crowd with her crockpot.”
“She was very attached to her nieces and nephews,” said Ms. Dillon.
Ms. Carberry was a Buffalo Bills fan, a nod to her birth place. “Her partner would take her to Bills’ games. She loved that,” said Ms. Dillon.
Something else she loved was decorating her Carman Road home for the holidays. “You name it, she had it,” said Ms. Dillon. “She was very creative. She had all those little villages. Bernadette and Dakota helped her decorate,” she said of Ms. Carberry’s daughter and granddaughter.
She concluded, “They did everything together.”
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Linda Louise Carberry is survived by her daughter, Bernadette Butterworth; her granddaughter, Dakota Liddle; her long-time partner, Jami Clark; her parents, Jerry and Bev Carberry; her sisters, Kathy Dillon and her husband, Jeffry, Colleen Moller and her husband, Jeffry, Peggy Carberry Brosnan and her partner, Tim Vedder, and Mary Moller and her husband, Randy; and by many nieces and nephews.
Her brother, Patrick Carberry, died before her.
Funeral services will be held in the Hans Funeral Home at 1088 Western Ave. in Albany, Saturday morning, Aug. 10, at 11:30 a.m. Relatives and friends are invited, and may call at the funeral home after the service from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to a special-needs trust for her daughter, Bernadette, and an education trust for her granddaughter, Dakota. Please email bernadettedakotatrustfund@gmail.com.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer