Erin “Kit” Nowell

Erin Kathleen “Kit” Nowell, 59, of Carrboro, died April 16 of complications from pancreatic cancer. She died at home with her children, Danny and Sarah Nowell, listening to Leonard Cohen’s Live in London, which she considered the definitive collection of Cohen’s material, including improved arrangements from many of his earliest gems and a selection of the best songs from his spotty later catalog.

Born in New London, Connecticut on June 14, 1965 to John Francis and Mary Teresa Brosnan, Kit was a vital, loving, creative force to all who knew her. She spent her childhood in Hawaii, Camp Lejeune, and Alexandria, Virginia following her father’s USMC service posts, and after high school in Alexandria she met Mark Chappuis, her first husband and Sarah and Danny’s father. After their separation and divorce, Kit moved with the children to North Carolina, where her parents had settled, and where she later met Jerry Nowell, whom she married in 2001, and who died of multiple myeloma in 2017.

Kit had always been fiercely compassionate, wildly imaginative, and gifted with words, traits that came into full flower when she undertook her graduate studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she trained to become a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. In her last decade of life, Kit found extraordinary meaning and connection in her work with her clients, and great joy and personal satisfaction in her family role as a dearly beloved nana to her grandchildren Louisa and Nell. She was known to her neighbors as “the lady with all the holiday inflatables,” and known at music venues throughout the Triangle area for her highly distinctive dance moves. She was a bright light in her community and a pillar of her family, an example to all who knew her in her commitment to justice and the dignity of all people.

She is survived by her parents John and Mary Brosnan, her daughter Sarah of Carrboro; her son Danny, his wife Sallie and their daughters Louisa and Nell; her brother John Brosnan, his wife Kim of Wilmington, and their children Abby and Riley. A celebration of her life will be had at her house—Nanaland—on Sunday, May 4th, 2025 for family and friends. Anyone interested in attending is welcome to contact Danny for more details.