about Carlene...

She had it all — a loving husband, three teenagers, a house in the suburbs and a standing appointment at the beauty shop — until her husband’s suicide left her with no job, no credit, the rent due and utility payments overdue. She inherited a quarter of a million dollars — in debts. A year later the financial struggle took a back seat to breast cancer.

With volunteer experience and "been-there-done-that" expertise she launched a career in public relations. As a hospital public relations and marketing director, she produced and hosted a health information show; chaired the Texas Hospital Association Media Advisory Board; served on the board of numerous charity and health promotion organizations including the Southwestern Medical School Physician Education advisory committee; and won a Fort Worth Advertising Club golden ADDY.

Retired newsman Dan Rather says an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger. Carlene says, "I'm clearly not an intellectual, I can’t listen to it without singing titty-rump, titty-rump, titty-rump-rump-rump. I’m a weed — a duct-tape-will-fix-it, God-helps-those-who-help-themselves sort — who grows where I’m planted."

And she's still growing. After retirement, she turned her T-shirt expertise and survival skills into a book, Don't Forget Your Umbrella: Forecast Sunshine, Prepare for Rain, an eight-step philosophy for successful aging. Now she's taking her upbeat message, Age is a Fact; Old is an Attitude, to audiences from the Heartland to the Northland. From Dallas to Duluth and Las Vegas to Winnipeg, she's changing women's image of aging.

Her travel, lifestyle and women's issues articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. She is currently a member of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Community Columnist Panel.

Last year Carlene realized a long-time dream of hiking down the Grand Canyon. Although it took her 11-hours to make the 10-mile climb up, she says, "My up-close encounter with one of the Seven Wonders of the World made me feel younger than any beauty treatment possibly could."