Bartz was born in Winona, Minnesota, the daughter of Shirley Ann (née Giese) and Virgil Julius Bartz.Her mother died when Carol was eight years old. A few years later, she and her younger brother, Jim, moved from Minnesota across the Mississippi River to the home of their grandmother, Alice, on a dairy farm near Alma, Wisconsin. [4] [5] In high school, Bartz did well in mathematics, and was ...