"Astronaut Wife"

In the late 1950s and through the 1960s, the astronauts and their wives became national celebrities, with exclusive LIFE magazine rights to their "personal stories"; the stresses of life in the public eye led the women of Mercury 7 to form an informal support group later called the Astronaut Wives Club. Carpenter was often singled out for her appearance. The Washington Post in 1961 described her as a "striking platinum blonde".^[4] In 1962, Time called her "by anyone's standards a dish".^[5] In 1975, People called her "the undisputed prom queen of the early space program."^[6] But she also had writing talent. 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.^[7][8][9]

In 2015, she was portrayed by Yvonne Strahovski in the miniseries The Astronaut Wives Club, based on the 2013 book by the same title.^[10] Carpenter herself was critical of both the book and the show, telling the Washington Post, it was "pure fiction."^[11]

Rene Carpenter has been credited for volunteering her husband for spaceflight. But Scott Carpenter, then a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, had already been identified as a candidate for Project Mercury at Phase 1, in late 1958, and had reported to the Pentagon in February 1959 for the Phase 2 briefings and interviews. It was at the Pentagon that Carpenter volunteered to proceed with the selection process. In late February 1959, with her husband aboard the USS Hornet on sea trials, Rene intercepted a letter from NASA inviting Scott to report to the Lovelace Clinic for the Phase 3 selection trials. The USN lieutenant commander had been asked to reply "by Monday." Rene opened the letter on a Tuesday morning, immediately calling the telephone number supplied, reaching NASA's manpower director Dr. Allen O. Gamble: "We volunteer," Rene exclaimed to a startled Dr. Gamble.^[12] Carpenter would report to Lovelace in March with his small group and was ultimately selected as a Project Mercury astronaut. She began writing her syndicated column, "A Woman, Still", in 1965, ending the column in 1969. 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.^[11] It took on then-controversial themes of the feminist movement.^[11]

Politics

In 1968, she campaigned for Robert Kennedy.^[6] She had a syndicated women's page column, "A Woman, Still", and from 1972 to 1976, was a television host, first with Everywoman and then with Nine in the Morning.^[4][6][1] She worked for Committee for National Health Insurance.^[4]