Carolyn was born in Shreveport at Physicians and Surgeons Hospital as one of four children to E. Edward and Leslie Alexander Jones. Her father is a Baptist minister and her mother an educator and graduate of Grambling State University. When her father was called to pastor Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, the family lived in the parsonage at 812 Butler Street. Assailants shot into their house during the civil rights struggles in the 1960s. Nevertheless, Reverend Jones, an active civil rfights proponent, filed a suit to desegregate Caddo Parish schools. Carolyn was the first African-American to attend Creswell Elementary School. As the only black child at the school, she recalls, "you had to be twice as good at whatever it was you were doing." She handled her class work and physical education well, despite being "called the `N' word just about every day by somebody for the better part of two or three years," she remarks. Carolyn played the viola as part of her arts education, and joined the Girl Scouts. She entered Broadmoor Junior High School where blacks constituted about one-fourth of the student body, then graduated from C.E. Byrd High School. She attended Centenary College of Louisiana, married, and had three children, two stepchildren, and two step grandchildren. She is a licensed cosmetologist at Modern Beauty Salon. She sings in the Galilee Chancellor Choir at Galilee Baptist Church and is assistant choreographer of Jubilee Dance Troop.