Rhodes has been recognized for her many published articles and essays (see Birmingham Arts Journal), and she has won several writing awards. She lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, her home for the past thirty years. Carolyn’s New York City roots are evident to all who meet her. In her historic memoir Library Girls of New York, A Secret Place she shares her experiences while growing up living inside two New York Public live-in Libraries (NYPL) funded by Andrew Carnegie. This is a unique and true story which covers the years from the 1930s until her dad retired from the NYPL in the mid-1970s. In her latest edition, self-published by Library Girls Publishing, she includes a preface and a new chapter. This printing will soon replace the existing Kindle version, as well as the Amazon hard copy.

Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dramatic Arts from the College of Staten Island, New York. She retired from the University of Alabama after working in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa where she wrote newsletters, edited publications and wrote feature articles for the Alumni Magazines. Post retirement, Carolyn has served on the Advisory Council from 2020 to 2024 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) located on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She continues to work on the Travel Committee. Carolyn continues to write, blog, enjoy classes at OLLI and she keeps up with line dancing for fun.