Ann LaVerne Carver

Ann LaVerne Mason Carver was born on Thursday, April 24th, 1941, to Dr. Larkin Keith Mason, Sr., and Grace LaVerne Dawson Mason in Shreveport, Louisiana. She lived in their family home with her brothers, Keith Mason Jr. and Dana Mason, and her sister, Delma Mason Cahak. She graduated from Byrd High School in Shreveport and obtained her undergraduate degree from SMU.

While at graduate school in Boston, Massachusetts, she met Larry Adkins Carver. On June 6th, 1964 they were married. While in Boston, her first daughter, Diana LaVerne Carver, was born. After graduation, they moved to Penelosa, Kansas (a small town outside of Wichita), to serve a local Methodist church. Her second daughter, Deborah Lynne Carver Hodges, was born here. Before the girls started grade school, the family moved to Prairie Village, Kansas, so that Larry could study medicine. In 1973, the family moved to Topeka, Kansas, for Larry's residency in psychiatry. Ann was a devoted spouse and mother. She was a room parent for her daughters in school and a Brownie and Girl Scout leader. She took her daughters to multiple ballet and Tae Kwon Do classes. She loved cooking "from scratch." She and Larry started a gourmet cooking club with their friends in Topeka that met weekly at rotating houses. These couples became her life-long friends. Her other passion was Hatha yoga. She started The Yoga Center and taught others Hatha yoga. What began as a hobby became a full-time job and supported Ann and the girls after Ann and Larry divorced.

While her daughters were in college, Ann decided to return to school to become a physical therapist. She took undergraduate physics classes with her daughter Diana and anatomy with her daughter Deborah at Washburn University in Topeka. At age 50, she obtained her master's in physical therapy from KU Medical School.

Ann moved back into her home in Topeka to work as a physical therapist for the chronic pain program at the Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital. During this time, she met and dated Cooper Woodring. In 2000 Ann moved to Corpus Christi to start her own physical therapy practice. Physical therapy was Ann's true calling. She loved helping others using a combination of her healing touch of cranial sacral therapy with more traditional manual therapy. She built her dream home overlooking the intracoastal waterway on North Padre Island. Cooper followed her down to Texas, and they married in her backyard, overlooking the water. This would be her final home.

Ann was preceded in death by her parents and Cooper. She is survived by her brothers, Keith (Dianne) and Dana (Leah); her sister, Delma; daughters, Diana Carver (Robert Lee) and Deborah (Andy Hodges); four grandchildren and two grandchildren-in-law, Tommi Lee and Toya, Jacque and Nathan Reilly, Sydney Hodges, and Julia Hodges; as well as her four great-grandchildren, Caydence Lee, Andre, Shaina, and Madison Lee.