Merlaine B. Carpenter

Rose Merlaine (Mikki) Carpenter died peacefully at home in her Brightwood community in Millersville on March 25, exactly one month after celebrating her 100th birthday with 125 friends and family members.

After graduating from Lincoln High School in Seattle in 1941, Mikki began work as a keypunch operator at Boeing Aircraft in support of the war effort. Seeing men dying from fighting overseas, she wanted to be more directly involved by enlisting as a Navy WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) when the program was established in 1942. But since she was only 19 and couldn’t get her parents’ permission, she had to wait until 1944 when she became 21 to join the WAVES. She wanted to be a corpsman so she could take care of the men coming back from war but was assigned to work in Washington, DC as a Communications Technician when the Navy found out she had keypunch experience. There she was involved in the work of breaking Japanese codes and soon met her future husband Bill at the water fountain. He was also involved in code-breaking, specifically in the operation that led to the Allied victory at Midway Island. The couple married in 1946.

After the war, they began their family and were stationed in Guam for a year, Japan from 1956 till 1958, and 3 very enjoyable years in Frankfurt, Germany from 1963 to 1966, which allowed the family to tour throughout Europe, returning to Glen Burnie in 1966. Mikki then began a ten year career at NSA and retired in 1978, when she and Bill moved to a cabin in West Virginia for a couple of years, then went to Tampa and to Bradenton, Florida in the early 1980s to live in a golf-course community for 20 years. They returned to this area in 2002 and settled in Millersville, mainly to be around their kids and grandkids. Bill predeceased Mikki in 2005.

In a time when youth are given center-stage and those older are under-valued or ignored, Mikki often felt she didn’t do anything important in her life. Her family constantly reminded her of the impact she made on all who knew her, especially her family. In their minds, she was a model of a life well-lived and one for her offspring to emulate.

Her life shined as an example of faith, courage, and service to all who knew her, whether it be serving her country, helping friends and neighbors, volunteering at church, Meals on Wheels, and Partners in Care, and driving people to appointments who were much younger than she was.

Mikki was a valued member of Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church in Millersville, where she was a member of the garden ministry and made lunches for the homeless.

She was active in her Brightwood neighborhood until recently, including volunteering for community events, especially those for children. In 2018, she was cofounder of B.R.A.Ts. – Brightwood Retirees Active Tuesdays.

Mikki is enshrined in the Military Women’s Memorial at Arlington. Her interview with a representative from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2016 will reside forever in both written and audio form in the Library of Congress. Up until her death, she was proud to be one of the few people alive who voted for FDR in 1944 (his fourth term), the first year she was able to vote.

She had one sister (Dorothy), who predeceased her in 1975. Mikki is survived by all five of her children: Linda Ackerman (Doug) of Lee, MA; Bill Carpenter (Sherry) of Arnold; Dorothy Carpenter (Doug Heisler) of Chestertown; Judy Lambert (Bob) of Delmar, DE; and John Carpenter (Dayle) of Millersville, as well as 12 grandchildren (Jessie, Kasey, Emmy, Dan, Kelly, Mark, Kristin, Jaime, Marta, Daniel, Patrick, Jonathan), 30 great-grandchildren, and six special nieces and nephews from the Seattle area.

A memorial service will be held at Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church in Millersville at a later date. Mikki will be inurned at Arlington National Cemetery alongside her husband when the schedule a