Catalina "Katalin" Carpenter

Catalina Maria Carpenter passed away peacefully at 3:00 PM on Good Friday, April 19, 2019 at the age of 99. She was in the loving company of her daughters Amaya D'Amore and Anita Tofte at the Rose Garden in Porter, TX. There will be a memorial service and celebration of her life at Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church at 10:30 AM in Nederland on June 1. She will be interred at Oak Bluff Memorial in Pt. Neches at 2:00 PM next to her beloved husband, David.

Catalina was born on March 5, 1920 to Marcelo and Germana Arenaza in Mundaka, Vizcaya, Spain. Her original birth certificate was in the name Katalin Miren Arenaza Tribisarrospe and was called Katalin by friends and family. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1937 she fled her Basque homeland at the age of 17 to London where she lived in a convent for single girls. Before leaving she witnessed the German bombing of Guernica, the historic Basque Capital of Spain and later survived the bombardment of London during World War II. She met David Carpenter, a Mississippi farm boy and American soldier stationed in London and they were married at St Charles Borromeo Catholic church in central London in 1944. After the war she came to the US on the Queen Mary with other war brides. They settled in Nederland where David worked for Sun Oil Company while Catalina managed the household. They regularly attended St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church where she was a member of the altar society and educated their three children at its school. She volunteered at Mid County hospital for 30 years as a "Pink Lady." She was very intelligent, kind, a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She enjoyed life, especially her family and many close friends. Catalina led an amazing adventure filled life.

Catalina was preceded in death by her husband, parents, 5 brothers and 2 sisters and other relatives and close friends. She is survived by her daughters Amaya Carpenter D'Amore and husband John, Kerrville, TX; Anita Carpenter Tofte and husband Clyde, Atasocita, TX; son David Carpenter and wife Carolyn, Alamo, CA; grandchildren Anita D'Amore Boronkay and husband Brian, Christina D'Amore, John David D'Amore and wife Dina, Ariel Carpenter, Cassie Tofte Lausch and Kristine Tofte; great grandsons Andrew and David Boronkay, Great granddaughters Samantha and Abigail Lausch and Amaya D'Amore. Catalina and her family had a special relationship and stayed close with her niece Arantza Mota Goita of Bilbao, Spain, and other family in New York, Spain and Argentina.