On August 15, 1948, Carolyn VanHorne moved to Washington D.C., where she lived with Libby Larson (Walters) in a roominghouse at 2138 O. Street, Northwest. In September of 1948 she started work as a bank teller at the Riggs National Bank in Washington D.C., with a starting salary of $2,200 a year; three months later she got a $300 raise. In 1949 Carolyn moved to 1241 Potomac Street, Northwest, in Georgetown and roomed with her sisters Dorothy and May; they paid $105 a month for rent. In the fall of 1949 Carolyn registered for classes at George Washington University and received nine hours of credit attending night school. On December 22, 1949, Carolyn, May, and Dorothy moved to a different apartment at 2012 R. Street, Northwest, and lived their until 1952. In July of 1952 Carolyn quit her banking job to return to Pawnee City for three months. She had worked at Riggs National Bank for 47 months. In October she returned to Washington D.C., and was married on October 6, 1952, to Stirling Glenn, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Burton Glenn of Washington D.C.. On October 27, 1952, Carolyn started work at McGregor & Werner, a manufacturers representative, for $3,600 a year. Her husband later got a job as a ticket agent with Eastern Airlines.

On September 5, 1953, their first child Stirling Glenn, Jr., was born at George Washington Univeristy Hospital. Two and a half years later a second son Stephen VanHorne Glenn was born on April 21, 1956, at Garfield Hospital in Washington D.C., 1959. They lived at 17th & Sewell Streets, and she worked at the First National Bank until August 1960, when they returned to the East Coast. They lived with Stirling Glenn for a few months in an apartment in Silver Springs, Maryland; then in February of 1961 Carolyn and her sons moved in with Aunt Patty Bradley and her five children. From September 1960 till September 1961, Carolyn again worked at the Riggs National Bank.

Carolyn and her two sons returned to Pawnee City, Nebraska, on September 9, 1961. Carolyn worked at the Farmers State Bank with a starting salary of $4,200. Stirling was in the third grade and Stephen was in kindergarten. They lived with Carolyn's parents (906 5th Street) until May 1962, when they purchased and moved into a small, gray house on the corner of 4th & J. Streets in Pawnee City. In 1963 the divorce of Stirling Glenn and Caroln VanHorne was finalized.

1966 Carolyn married Albert Christensen, a local auctioneer, farmer, and pool hall owner in Pawnee City. they lived on three farms located west of Pawnee City; the first was the old guy Avery farm, located one mile west; the second was the Johnson farm, one and a half miles west; and the third was the Dorrance farm, two miles west, which was purchased for $300 an acre in 1969. After thirteen years of marriage, Carolyn and Albert Christensen were divorced in 1979. Carolyn opened her real estate office in downtown Pawnee City of that same year. In December of 1980 the home farm (220 acres) sold for $1,405 an acre, the highest price ever brought for a farm in Pawnee County. Carolyn moved to a stucco house at 1126 G. Street in Pawnee City in 1981. Later she purcased the old Clyde Barton house at 619 9th Street and moved into her new home on August 9, 1983.