Carolyn Nina Patterson Barnes (Lotz), of Hartshorn Missouri, died peacefully at home on May 18, 2025. She was surrounded by the love of family, with her son and husband at her side.
Carolyn was born on November 18, 1955 in St. Louis, Missouri to Richard Roy Lotz and Jeane Claire Lotz (Nelson). As a child, she spent many happy hours exploring the forest behind her home.
Carolyn eventually settled in a suburb of Washington, D.C. in 1988 to raise her son. In the 90s she contributed to research on Schistosoma Mansoni, a parasite of humans. Never comfortable with suburban life, it was not until her son graduated from high school in 2003 that she made the move to live close to her sister, Laura, in Hartshorn, Missouri. In the same year she met her love, Carl Ray Barnes Sr., whom she married in October 2009. They spent over two decades together building a welcoming home, and tending their gardens, fields, and menagerie of horses and dogs. It became a warm home base for friends and family to visit, pick blackberries, and ride horses in the southern Missouri pine forest.
A scientist, biologist, constant reader, and atheist, Carolyn felt what Pascal called the “God-sized void” in all of us. In her own way she filled it with love, wonder and exploration. She filled it by slinging cocktails at a fancy hotel bar in D.C. with her life-long friends. Birdwatching in Costa Rica. Skydiving with friends in West Point, Virginia in 1995. Collecting pond water samples and dissecting snails. Catching malaria and decompression sickness while scuba diving with her probably-too-young-for-that son in Honduras. She filled the hole with an awe and love of nature, life, genomics, and the universe.
Carolyn had a passion for learning, reading, and particularly Scrabble. When she first had difficulty with her massive vocabulary, she and her family started on a path of understanding glioblastoma, a cancer without known causes that can strike anyone, at any age, anywhere in the brain. In Carolyn it chose the most valuable target first: her ability to recall and use language. From there, she endured over 27 months, her husband Carl by her side to the very end.
She is predeceased by her sister, Laura Karr (2005), and survived by her brother Stephen Lotz, sister Jennifer, son Zachary Patterson, grandchildren Lia and Ian, and husband Carl.
Carolyn requested she not have a formal service. If you are able, the family would be truly grateful if you would contribute any amount directly to the Brain Tumor Center of Wash U School of Medicine.
