Carol Hannafin Obituary

Carol Ann Schmidt Hannafin, formerly of Cincinnati OH, New York NY, Englewood and Ramsey NJ, and Columbia SC, passed away on Friday, July 25, at her home in Greenville, South Carolina, two days after her 86th birthday. Beloved daughter of Alice Murphy Schmidt and Cyril John Schmidt, she was married for 58 years to singer and actor Daniel Patrick Hannafin, with whom she shared love, banter, struggle, and adventure until his death in 2020. Together they had two sons, Matthew Brendan and Brian Patrick Hannafin, and were loving grandparents to Malcolm Leonard, Anousheh Eleanor, Elizabeth Ann Michelle, and Roxanne Indigo Hannafin. Raised in Cincinnati, Carol lost her father when she was just five, while he was serving as an instructor at the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Virginia, during WWII. Thereafter, she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother Nora Dunne Murphy, an immigrant from Tuam, Co. Galway, Ireland. She attended high school at Cincinnati's Saint Ursula Academy, studied ballet at the College Conservatory of Music, and began her professional career dancing with the Cincinnati Summer Opera. Moving to New York in 1957, she worked in ballet, opera, and Broadway productions while studying with Madame Vera Nemtchinova, a former star with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Under the stage name Carol Sherman, she danced in the Broadway shows Donnybrook and No Strings and in the New York City Opera's debut of Carmina Burana, a ballet based on Carl Orff's cantata. She met her future husband while working summer theater, and they married on August 11, 1962. They welcomed their first son in 1963 and their second in 1970. Living first on New York's Upper East Side and then in New Jersey, Carol transitioned from theater to motherhood. Possessed of a smart and artistic mind, a sharp eye, clever hands, and great energy, she occupied her off-duty hours with a succession of enthusiasms and projects, from restoring antique furniture to building stone edging walls around her family's suburban property. Her talent for spotting potential and turning it into treasure extended to her sons, whose young lives she guided with insight. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, she and Dan built day-by-day a life they could be proud of, and which their sons look back on with love, devotion, and respect. Moving to Columbia, SC, in 1992, Carol opened an antique shop, researched and catalogued family history, and cared for her centenarian mother. In the 2010s, she and Dan made more than a dozen cross-country drives to visit their sons, daughters-in-law, and young grandchildren, always taking different routes so they could explore the country. She had a wonderful smile, made a mean spinach quiche, could wiggle her middle finger like a snake while keeping the rest still, and loved her husband, kids, and grandkids fiercely. Her family mourns her passing with great sadness but a lifetime of gratitude for all she was and all the love she gave. A graveside service will be held at Our Lady of The Lake Catholic Church Cemetery on August 5, 2025 at 10:00 A.M. Memories and messages may be shared on her tribute wall. Whitaker Funeral Home is honored to serve the Hannafin Family.