Lenore Kathryn Carter Memorial Endowment
Lenore Kathryn Carter was born on August 25, 1913 at home at 1534 East 24th Street, Des Moines, Iowa. Lenore was raised in a loving home on a farm near Martensdale by her parents Charles and Katherine Wonderlin, along with sisters Maxine and Minnette and brothers Wilbert and Henry. Lenore and Wilbert (two years older) were inseparable in their youth and Lenore grew up as a tomboy and throughout her life was known and widely regarded for being able to “fix things.” She possessed an incredibly inquisitive mind and was always reading, learning and taking things apart to see how they worked.
Lenore graduated high school at the age of 16 because Wilbert did not want to be without his sister, and convinced the teacher that Lenore (a first grader) was starting third grade with him when the Martensdale school opened in the fall. The skipped grades did not impair Lenore’s learning and acquisition of all kinds of knowledge. Things she learned from, and with, Wilbert included how to rebuild car engines, grind valves, changes transmissions, fix shotguns, recondition fishing reels, and power a manual washing machine by hooking it up by belt to a Ford Model T rear wheel.
Lenore was a high school senior when the stock market crash of 1929 occurred on October 24th. That event set off the Great Depression that lasted for 10 years until 1939. Lenore’s life and her perspective were impacted by these historic events. Through all the challenges, then, and through the remainder of her life, she knew, valued and benefitted from having a positive attitude (whether it was easy to do so or not). Lenore enrolled in the School of Journalism at the University of Iowa. It was one of her great disappointments that a personal traumatic event kept her from graduating.
A life-long learner, Lenore, a divorced mother of six and at the age of 51, took night classes at Des Moines Vocational Tech to learn computer programming in the early 1960s. Living in the country near Prole, she would drive into Des Moines daily to work, taking riders to help pay for gas. After dropping off her riders, she would head back into 20th and Grand to attend night classes in attempt to gain a skill and get a better job.
With the help of friends and family Lenore and her children survived and prospered. Judy was the first to attend and graduate college in the family and paved the way for the rest; Judy was a dedicated social worker until she stopped to raise her family. Diane followed Judy, and after her undergraduate degree, earned her Juris Doctorate; Diane recently retired as a Senior Assistant Attorney General of Washington State. Frank and Sandra each followed suit and both earned undergraduate and Master’s degrees in their respective fields of business and education.
The real story is that the family never had extra money and every undergraduate degree was earned on borrowed money and faith. Lenore provided the faith, encouragement and all the support she could muster to see that her children pursued education as she knew it was the ticket out of poverty. Lenore provided this same encouragement, direction and emotional support to many of her friends and family. When the price of the Texas Instrument TI-99/4A home computer dropped to $99 in December 1983, Lenore bought one for every grandchild and, at 70 years old, continued her lifetime mission to help those around her learn and grow through exploration and education.
After her death in 2006, Lenore’s family created the Lenore Kathryn Carter Memorial Endowment Fund to continue her support of those seeking to improve their life through learning. Lenore was a very strong person who lived a full, though modest life. She had a deep and important relationship with God through her religion and used its teachings to navigate through the troubles in life and the roadblocks that seem to appear. As heat tempers metal and gives it strength, the challenges she faced only made her stronger. Importantly, she never lost her tenderness or her sense of humor.
Students today face many challenges, and it is the family’s hope that knowing a little bit more about Lenore Kathryn Carter helps these students on their way. It is also the family’s hope that, with this scholarship, their mother’s sweet voice is never lost and her mission to help others learn and grow carries on.