Carrie Mae Wooldridge Cummings was born in 1910 in Lockhart,Texas. She was the daughter of Edward and Melissa Katherine Wooldridge. She was raised on a farm and was the last child born in a large family. Her father died when she was five years old. She was raised by her mother and sister Helen on Blum Street. Her brothers Ned and Sam lived there off and on, as did many cousins and nieces. This was an old 2 or three story Victorian house with many rooms.
Her first boyfriend was Virgil Jaycox. Then she met Marshall Cummings, who was a soldier stationed at a base in San Antonio. They courted against the will of her mother and sister Helen. She and Marshall eloped and got married on Jul 22, 1932. In 1933, Marshall was selected for the Aircraft Mechanic School at Chanute Army Air Field at Rantoul, Illinois. Her husband lost his Sergeant rank to attend the school. She got a job icing pies to help support them and they lived in a one room apartment for a year while he attended the school. They became friends with Barney Haughen and his wife while there. One of the highlights was when she had to help the base doctor deliver a baby at the apartment house. They moved back to Texas upon Marshall's graduation. In 1940 Sue was born and Gary was born in 1947.
Carrie was a liberal Democrat her entire life and was more advanced as far as race goes than her husband. Carrie was cared for, due to her mother's illness, by a black woman. Carrie never exhibited much of the racism in Texas during her life.
She was widowed in 1971. She sold the house a couple of years later. She never understood why her son became a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. She almost married Joseph Farley. She lived near her daughter Sue for many years, and finally moved to Colorado to be near her.
She was diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease in 1997, and resided in an assisted living center in Colorado Springs till her death in 1999.