Michael Joseph Carr

"Like most of us, sweet easy-going Joe, tried his wings in the United States. But he for one would have fared better to have stayed in Ireland for he never adjusted to the faster tempo of life in the U.S. After a series of unsatisfactory jobs, he joined the United States Army for a stint of duty. For reasons of health, he was mustered out; and then "joined the army of the unemployed, -eleven millions or more, -during the Great Depression of the 1930's. I brought him to Washington in the hope that he could find work in a grocery chain where he had had some experience in New York. But at that time in D.C., there was hostility toward "outsiders" in competing for the scarce jobs. Many fine men, many of them veterans of the war, were peddling apples and ice cream, ironically called "Good Humor." Anything like hat would be the end of Joe; so I offered to pay his way back to Ireland and he accepted, although I could afford little more than his passage. His health improved for a time, responding to Mother's tender loving care, but the improvement was of short duration. He died in the county hospital in Galway, and is buried in the family plot in Moycullen churchyard where so many of the Carrs sleep the long long sleep of the dead. Joe was my childhood companion and one of the nicest brothers a sister could ever have."

The Carr Family History by Agnes B. Carr, November 1967