Carol Lynn Wright Pearson (b. 27 September 1939 in Salt Lake City, Utah)[1] is an American poet, author, screenwriter, and playwright. Her parents were Lelland Rider Wright and Emeline Sirrine Wright. Her mother died of breast cancer when Carol Lynn was fifteen. Carol Lynn studied music and theater at Brigham Young University, where she won the award for Best Actress two years in a row.
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Pearson is probably best known for her memoir Goodbye, I Love You and the LDS musical My Turn On Earth. Her play Facing East, about a Mormon family dealing with the suicide of a gay son, opened Off Broadway on 29 May 2007.[2] She also wrote One On The Seesaw, a lighthearted book about raising a family as a single parent.
Pearson's first book was the poetry collection, Beginnings, published in 1969. Her other works include
Pearson married actor, musician, and songwriter Gerald Neils Pearson (1942–1984), whom she had met in a college production of The Skin of Our Teeth, on 9 September 1966 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two were devout Mormons who both descended from several generations of Latter-day Saints. They were married for 12 years and had four children together, settling in Provo, Utah.
Gerald had told Carol Lynn while they were engaged that he had had sexual relationships with men, but had left that phase of his life behind. Mormon authorities also assured the couple that marriage would turn Gerald into a heterosexual. However, he eventually confronted his homosexuality and after a move to California prompted by his desire to explore this side of himself, they separated and were divorced in 1978. He returned to live with her and their children after being diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, and she cared for him until his death. Her book Goodbye, I Love You is about their life together.
Since then, Pearson has become an unofficial spokesperson for acceptance of gay people by their Mormon families, as well as a stronger leadership role for women in the Mormon community. Many of her works address these issues, and she speaks on these and related subjects around the country. She notes, "I love the Mormon community ... and I have a unique opportunity to build bridges."
Pearson's daughter Emily (b. 1968) is an actress[3] and writer who is the author of Dancing With Crazy (2011), a memoir of her life and family. Pearson's elder son John (b. 1969) is a professional caricaturist[4] and one of the original animators of the Simpsons; younger son Aaron Pearson (b. 1971) is a rock musician.[5] Her youngest child, Katharine Sirrine "Katy" Pearson Adams (1975–1999), died of a brain tumor at the age of 23. Actor and playwright Steven Fales is her former son-in-law. She has four grandchildren.
Pearson is a longtime resident of Walnut Creek, California.