JoAnn Ruth Carpenter

JoAnn Brenner Carpenter, age 84, a Corpus Christi resident for more than 65 years who was a teacher and guidance counselor here for more than 37 years, died Wednesday, February 3, after a long illness. She was born in San Antonio in 1932 to the late Henry and Esther Brenner.

She attended Jefferson High School in San Antonio and served on the school’s girl lassos, an entertainment marching group.

In Corpus Christi, she will be especially remembered by many former second-graders at Carroll Lane Elementary School (now Mary Helen Berlanga Elementary) and by hundreds of high school students for whom she served as a guide on visits to several nations, including, France, Germany, Portugal, Australia and China as part of the Corpus Christi Independent School District’s “People to People” program in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

In addition to the regular Carroll Lane school program, she organized a Carroll Lane second grade ukulele band which performed for student events. For years after leaving Carroll Lane School she was delighted to be recognized by her now-grown former students still remembering their ukulele days at Carroll Lane.

JoAnn enrolled at TCU as an art major in 1948. There she met journalism major C. W. Carpenter when they were members of an ice skating club. When Carpenter graduated in 1950, JoAnn dropped out of TCU and followed him to Corpus Christi. They married two weeks later and she entered A & I Kingsville in January 1951, graduating with a teacher’s degree. Later she took a master’s degree at A & I.

After finalizing her master’s degree at A & I, she became a school guidance counselor in Corpus Christi. She eventually served consecutively in that capacity in every local high school at the time of her service.

The Carpenters’ son, John David Carpenter, was born in 1954. Other survivors include a brother, Aubrey Brenner, of Valparaiso, FL; his two children, Ruth Ann of Salt Lake, Utah and Mary Lynn of Panama City, FL, and several nieces and nephews.

JoAnn was active in Little Theatre Corpus Christi for several years and received a number of “Sammy Awards”, including for Best Supporting Actress in “The Mousetrap” in 1972 and in “Critics Choice” in 1980.

She was active in the League of Women Voters, as well an active member of a scrabble club and The Red Hat Club, a social group. She retired from the school district service in 1989.

JoAnn was a long-time bird watcher and for many years was an ardent fisherwoman in local salt water and fly fishing in the mountains of New Mexico, Colorado and Oregon.

In 2014 she was stricken with a neurological problem for which she sought help from doctors in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans. Her problems resembled Parkinson’s disease, but no Parkinson’s diagnosis was ever received. Frequent falls related to the neurological problem resulted in a fractured pelvis, followed a year later by a broken hip. Before recovering from these events she developed an abdominal infection from which she never recovered.

JoAnn loved animals, keeping both pet dogs and cats much of her life, and alley cats found her to be ready protector. As a young child, she said her first cat named Willie, slept in her bed. Her final pet is a big alley cat called BeBe, which survives her.

Visitation with the family will be held at Memory Gardens Funeral Home on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 1:00 p.m., with a Chapel Service to follow at 2:00 p.m. Interment will follow at Memory Gardens Cemetery.