Marion A. Carpenter (March 6, 1920 – October 29, 2002), was the first woman national press photographer to cover Washington, D.C. and the White House, and to travel with a US President.

Her father Harry Carpenter moved from North Carolina to work as a laborer in Minnesota, where he met Lillian.

In her off-duty hours from study and work, she had joined the St. Paul Camera Club, where she learned the basics of photography.

[7] Her work with the INP syndicate was a factor in winning a highly coveted White House job in 1945,[4] through which she soon developed a professional and cordial relationship with U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

[1] In 1946, she told a reporter, "You have to be able to take the guff," after she won an award for a photo of Truman's playing the piano for Lauren Bacall.

[4] At the time, despite Carpenter's membership in the White House Photographers Association, women were not allowed at the annual dinners with the president.

For instance, in the May 23, 1949 issue of Life, Carpenter had nine of the twelve pictures in the article on E. George Luckey, who had been a member of the 39th District in the California State Legislature[12] Some have speculated that Marion may have had an affair during her time in Washington.

[1] A distant elderly cousin, found in Maine, authorized one of her friends to act as the executor of her estate.

Carpenter's treasured photography equipment, including over a dozen of her cameras, developers, diffusers and lights, her pictures, and few other possessions were sold at an estate sale in March 2003 by her son Mjohn who had finally been reached by friends and told of his mother's death.

[15] Her ashes, along with those of her mother, were scattered on a farm between Villard and Glenwood, Minnesota, where she had spent summers as a child.

[10] "She sounds like the type of woman upon whose shoulders we all stand," noted Susy Shultz, president of the Journalism and Women Symposium, when commenting on Marion Carpenter's death.

[1] Ramona Rush's Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education: A 30-Year Update (2003) describes Carpenter in the preface as a "newly found pioneer White House news photographer" and devotes a tribute to her.

[8] The White House Correspondents' Association, to which Carpenter belonged, has a photo of her with other members who covered President Truman.

[16] It was not until 1962, when President John F. Kennedy objected to the ban against women members at the annual WHCA dinner, that they were allowed.