Source: http://www.southernfuneralhome.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1428737&fh_id=10175

Zelma Carpenter
(March 9, 1924 - March 21, 2012)

Mrs. Zelma Carpenter, 88, of Dodson, LA, was called unto the rest by her Lord Jesus Christ after a short illness on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, at the Winn Parish Medical Center in Winnfield, LA. She was a member of the Union Baptist Church in Joyce, LA.

Born March 09, 1924 in Roscoe, TX, she was the daughter of the late Walter Mayfield Jones and Ellen Bonnette Jones. She was preceded in death, only 11 days earlier, by her husband, Rev. Lester Carpenter, of 72 years. Also preceding her in death were six brothers including, Glover Jones, John Jones, Deb Jones and Curtis Jones of Kilgore, TX, Lawson Jones of Dodson, LA. and infant brother, Preston Jones of Roscoe, TX. And three sisters, Annie Lee Barker of Odessa, TX, Janie Mae Coleman of Harlingen, TX, and Pauline Carpenter of Dodson, LA.

She enjoyed homemaking but loved being a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother. Her greatest love was serving as a deacon's, preacher's and a missionary's wife. She also enjoyed big game hunting with her husband in NM and CO, as well as cooking and gardening, both in vegetable and flower gardens.

She was a very cooperative person, always content to be in the background and never needed recognition. For 72 years and 9 months, she was truly the ``wind beneath her husband's wings''.

Mrs. Carpenter made her professional faith at Roscoe Baptist Church in Roscoe, TX, in early 1936. When her family moved to LA in late 1936, she became a charter member of Welcome Home Baptist Church near Dodson, LA, where Rev. Amos Buchan served as the first pastor.

She became a pastor's wife to 10 churches in Ouachita, Lasalle, Caldwell, Grant, and Winn Parishes in LA. She was also a missionary's wife that began in February 1968, and traveled with her husband to the Lesser Antilles, the Leeward and Caribbean Islands. This included the various islands St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, Haiti, Anguilla and Dominica, ministering in cooking in teams of up to 17 men and women for 35 years.

She helped her husband in the building of churches among the poorest of the poor in Jamaica, where many worshipped under bamboo huts and sat on cane poles placed lengthwise to serve as pews. Providing the meals and ministering, while traveling the roads by donkey or walking by day and during the nightly services among 9 missions and the main pastorate at Paradise Baptist Church in Crofts Hill, Jamaica, became her work for over 35 years, amassing many heartrending stories both told and untold. She also served as a missionary's wife for 27 years in the Cherokee Indian Nation in OK. Some of the many experiences the two amassed were catalogued and written in their biography entitled, ``Throw it in the Creek.''

Survivors are her four daughters Zelma Odell Cowher and Sheral Maxey and husband Donnie of Winnfield, Carolyn Addington, and Sue Ellyn Barton and husband Russell of Dodson; six grandchildren Terri Wilkerson, Stacey Wilkerson Smotherman and husband Rick, Kristie Maxey Rolen, Susan Barton Vann and husband Roger, Rusty Travis Barton and wife Angela, Janna Addington Harrel; seven great-grandchildren Sarah Mauterer Truell, Shelby Smotherman, Ashley Rolen O'Bannon, Derek Rolen, Caroline Harrel, Alison Harrel, and Landon Travis Barton; three great great-grandchildren Jaelyn Rolen O'Bannon, Kennedee Rolen O'Bannon and Presley Truell, three step great-grandchildren, nine step great great-grandchildren; two sisters Ruth Carpenter Lafollette of Dodson and Irene Spangler of Winnfield.

She is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, friends, church members, fellow pastors and wives, music directors and fellow mission workers. Since Mrs. Carpenter was blessed with so many years in life, most of her closest friends and acquaintances preceded her in death. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2012 at East Winnfield Baptist Church of Joyce, La. with her pastor Rev. Rayford Higgs and Rev. Gerald Nelson officiating.

Interment will follow in the Old Union Cemetery in Joyce under the direction of Southern Funeral Home of Winnfield. Friends may visit with the family at the funeral home on Friday from 5:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. and on Saturday at the funeral home from 10:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.