Carol G. Kaiser, 64, a pleasant but private woman with a devoted affection to her family, the Kentucky department store chain where she worked for a quarter-century, and those she knew well, died of cancer Saturday, Feb. 10, in the Episcopal Church Home in Louisville. Mrs. Kaiser was a traditionalist–as any turkey-centered holiday meal in her Lexington home or summertime trip to a baseball game would show–and the kind of grandmother who planned visits for months and began Christmas shopping by late spring. For the last 25 years, she was a dedicated sales associate for Lazarus department stores, cheerfully disparaging markdowns offered by her store’s competitors while happily applying her own employee discount for the benefit of her grandchildren. “She spent a lot of time preparing for Christmas and liked to make it a big deal for her grandkids,” said her daughter, Robin Ayres. “She’s one of those people you don’t see too often anymore; she spent her life devoted to her kids and grandkids.” The former Carol Grimm was the daughter of Fred Grimm Sr., general manager of Louisville’s former minor league baseball team. After a childhood marked by train trips to out-of-town ballgames, she graduated from DuPont Manual High School in Louisville and had a fondness for baseball her entire life. She did secretarial work in Louisville for a time before marrying Robert L. Kaiser Sr., her high school sweetheart, in 1956. The couple raised their children in Lexington and divorced 20 years later; she never remarried and began working at Lazarus shortly thereafter. Upbeat most of the time, she liked pretending to complain about work, but would then go decades without missing a day and made most of her adult friends there. She retired last month. In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Kaiser is survived by a son, Tribune staff writer Robert L. Kaiser Jr.; a sister, Lynda Grimm; a brother, Fred Grimm Jr.; and four grandchildren. A service was held Monday in Louisville.
