Rene Carpenter

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]