Rene Carpenter

Photograph of Rene Carpenter at Press Conference - NARA - 7479578 (cropped).jpg

Rene Carpenter (April 12, 1928 – July 24, 2020) was an American newspaper columnist and television personality. She was the wife of Scott Carpenter, one of the Mercury Seven astronauts.[1][2] She was part of the Astronaut Wives Club and was its last living member. She was born in Clinton, Iowa.[3]

In 1968, she campaigned for Robert Kennedy.[4] She had a syndicated women's page column, "A Woman, Still", and from 1972 to 1976, a television presenter, first with Everywoman, and then with Nine in the Morning.[3][4][5] She worked for Committee for National Health Insurance.[3]

Carpenter died on July 24, 2020, at a hospital in Denver from congestive heart failure, aged 92.[1][2] She was the last surviving member of the Astronaut Wives Club, after Annie Glenn died two months earlier.[1]

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