Former St. Armands Circle business owner and staple dies at 79

Judy Carman wore many hats throughout her nearly 80 years: Mrs. Claus, Mable Ringling, the owner of Carman’s Shoes and Handbags, Bill’s better half. No matter what the role, though, her most meaningful one was always with her family. 

“They were very much about their family,” longtime associate Andrew Vac said of Judy and her husband of nearly 60 years, Bill Carman. “They went everywhere together. You rarely saw one without the other. They were attached at the hip, and they were a very, very tight knit family.” 

Carman died May 15. She was 79. Before her death to cancer, she became a grandmother to baby Archer, born prematurely in April. She never got to meet him. 

“But there’s a miracle about that,” longtime friend Diana Corrigan said. “Archer’s due date was actually May 15. … Although she never got a chance to hold him, she was all excited about being a grandma, and (son) Matt had taken a bunch of photos for her, and the last time I talked to her she was really excited because they were planning on coming this month, and it unfortunately just didn’t happen. She passed away on the day that Archer was supposed to be born, and Matt said that she said, ‘Well, I’m just going to be his guardian angel.’” 

Carman was a fixture on St. Armands Circle as a business owner and member of the St. Armands Circle Association.

She played Mable Ringling in the 75th anniversary celebration of the Circle in 2001 and posed as a stand-in for Mrs. Claus during the Christmas celebrations for several years. During the rest of the year, she worked in Carman’s Shoes and Handbags with her husband, whose parents established the store in the 1960s. Bill ran the store while Judy was raising their three sons, but she came to work once they were grown. She worked in the handbags store upstairs until they retired in 2010. 

“The store was a fixture and they were part of the association and had all the knowledge,” Vac said. “They were both just a delight and wonderful people to have as friends. They were in the shoe business, so they sold shoes first but it would come around to the latest gossip or what the news on the Circle was because they were in the thrust of it.” 

And they were in the thrust of it together. The Carmans had been together since they were 13, got married when they were 19 and spent time together constantly, whether it was together as a family or both in the store. Longtime Circle Association members would drop in to see them from time to time. 

“They are the easiest people in the world to talk to,” Corrigan said. “Judy was just so personable. Anybody that walked in the store, it was like they were a long-lost friend. She just treated everybody like she’d always known them. It was just a beautiful, family-run business. Their twin sons and even their youngest son all worked in the store, too, so everybody was there. … Not only were they husband and wife and family, but they worked together in the store. They did everything together. They were best friends. They were truly soulmates.”

Corrigan said Carman was a very grounded person whose strong faith kept her going. Her attitude was always positive and her first thoughts were always for her family. When nurses asked her what she liked to do, she said she liked to cook for her family and take care of them.

“When they got the news at the end that there wasn't anything that could be done, she said, ‘Well, it wasn't the news that we wanted to hear, but you know, we're going to make the best of this,’” Corrigan said. “She told Bill, ‘Now you have to be both grandma and grandpa to Archer. I'm counting on you to do that.’ She had an amazing attitude and was an amazing person.”