Yolanda Carr, Owner of Le Salon de Beaute' Remembered as Loving, Motivated, Successful

UPDATE (March 8)—Pikesville had a gem of the beauty industry in Yolanda Carr, 38, owner of . 

In 2008 the wife and mother of two was honored as best stylist by Baltimore Magazine. Carr received the honor just a year after she realized a lifelong dream—opening her shop in Pikesville, said Carr's best friend, Jenah Laramie.

"She was on top of her world," Laramie said of Carr. "She was very family oriented and loved what she did. She loved everyone who came in ... unconditionally loved everyone. People are better to have known her, and the world has definitely lost out on an amazing individual."

Carr, of the 4500 block of Tapscott Road in Pikesville, died Wednesday evening at the scene of a car accident in a parking lot near the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company.

Family will receive friends from 1-7 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at Estep Brothers Funeral Services, 1300 Eutaw Place, Baltimore. Services of the celebration will be held at The Emmanuel Church, 8729 Church Lane, Randallstown. Family time is at 10:30 a.m. The service is at 11:00 a.m. To read the full notice, visit The Baltimore Sun.

Not only was Carr a successful businesswoman, excelling in her career and ambitions, but she and her husband recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary, and they have two sons, ages 7 and 9, Laramie said.

"It's pretty heavy here," Laramie said last week, regarding the mood at the shop. "I'm trying to hold it together. This is her legacy, this is her dream. It's hard, but she would have wanted the salon to keep going and I am going to do everything in my power to keep it going—with the help of her family."

Laramie said customers might remember Carr from the R Salconi shop in Owings Mills, where she worked as a stylist for 15 years.

When Salconi closed that shop, Carr opened Le Salon de Beaute'.

Carr was "avidly athletic," Laramie said. She would go to the gym in the morning and take her boys hiking.

"She was very down-to-earth, very grounded," Laramie said.

And she was also an avid supporter of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, an organization the shop supported each year, Laramie said.

Among the other charities she supported were the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Dorothy Friedman Caplan Guild, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Jewish Caring Network and Garrison Forest School.

"When I say she was amazing, she cared about everybody," Laramie said. "They broke the mold with her. She really was something else."

Laramie urged people to remember Carr for the works she did for others, not by the words in a police report from the accident.

"I don't want that to be the way people remember her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be her," she said.

According to Le Salon de Beaute's Facebook page, in lieu of flowers an education trust has been established: The Yolanda Carr Memorial Fund, for her two boys Colin and Ethan. Contributions can be made at any M&T Bank branch, or may be mailed to: Le Salon de Beaute' c/o Memorial Fund, 105 Old Court Road, Pikesville, MD 21208.