Carolyn Van White of Marblehead, known to her grandchildren as Nana Van and Nanz Bananz, died peacefully on Wednesday, November 5, 2026, with her family and all six of her grandchildren around her. She was 83.
She was born February 23, 1943, in Oklahoma City, the daughter of Gladys Maxine (VanDorn) Zeller and Robert Zeller, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. At Wyandotte High School she and her future husband, Samuel Allen White, a friend since junior high, were the school’s jitterbug champions. She raised her two children in Rocky Hill and West Hartford, Connecticut, and worked in insurance at Travelers and Aetna.
She came to Marblehead to help her daughter raise three children, and her family says that work, raising Kelly, Sophie and Todd, became the proudest achievement of her later life. She was at every sporting event, art show and recital, seen on the sideline and heard well beyond it; the family describes her as the true loud cheerleader of the household and settles on one adjective for her, feisty. She loved to dance, to watch football and above all the Kansas City Chiefs, to look out at the water in Marblehead, to enjoy a glass of Chardonnay and to spend time with her cat, Kelce. Her personality, the family writes, far exceeded her four-foot-eleven frame.
She leaves her children, Kimberly White Easterbrooks and Wm. Gregory White; her former husband and lifelong friend Samuel Allen White; her six grandchildren, Kelly Caroline Jackson, Lauren Sophie Jackson, Casey Margaret White, Todd Warren Jackson, Corey Maxine White and Sarah Molly White; and her children’s in-laws Bonnie Washington, John Rohatsch and Darby Easterbrooks, whom the family thanks for their love and friendship.
A celebration of her life is being planned for January. In place of flowers the family asks that donations in her honor go to the Kaplan Family Hospice House, 78 Liberty Street, Danvers, MA 01923. Arrangements are by C.R. Lyons and Sons Funeral Directors in Danvers, where condolences may be left online.
Compiled from information published by Danvers, MA. Photograph courtesy of the family via Danvers, MA. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
