Rene[A] Carpenter (April 12, 1928 – July 24, 2020) was an American newspaper columnist and host of two Washington, D.C., television shows.

[2][3] Her mother, Olive (Olson) Mason, became one of the first female clerks at the station in Clinton, Iowa, for the Chicago and North Western Railroad.

Life published Rene's first-person feature story on her experiences, both as a career military wife and on the events during her husband's May 24, 1962, flight aboard Aurora 7.

Rene opened the letter on a Tuesday morning, immediately calling the telephone number supplied, reaching NASA's manpower director Dr. Allen O.

[12] Carpenter would report to Lovelace in March with his small group and was ultimately selected as a Project Mercury astronaut.

After their divorce, and at the invitation of Washington Post publisher Kay Graham, who owned the local CBS affiliate, WTOP, Rene developed and hosted a TV show entitled Everywoman, airing weekly on Saturday night.

"Timmy" died at age six months, in San Diego, where her husband was preparing for his tour of duty in the Korean conflict (1951–1954).

[13] Scott Carpenter resigned from NASA in August 1967 and moved with Rene and their children to Bethesda, Md., where the U.S. Navy's Deep Sea Submergence Project (SEALAB) was headquartered.

[2][3] Of the fourteen men and women of Project Mercury, Rene was the last surviving member; Annie Glenn had died two months earlier, on May 19, 2020.