Carolyn Ann Cowart Misenheimer, Associate Professor Emerita of Elementary Education at Indiana State University, 79, died at Terre Haute Regional Hospital on March 20, 2013. She was born on August 9, 1933, in Houston, Texas, and was graduated valedictorian in 1950 from Iraan, Texas, High School. In 1953, she graduated from Baylor university, Waco, Texas, receiving the bachelor of arts degree in English cum laude. In 1955, she received the master of arts degree in English from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Professor Misenheimer's teaching career spanned forty years. She taught at public elementary schools in Fisher, Illinois; Tokyo, Japan; Waco, Texas; the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado; Redland, Maryland; Lewisville, Texas; and Greencastle, Indiana. For the last nineteen years of her career, she taught at the Indiana State University Laboratory School in Terre Haute, retiring in 1993. In 1986 she received the Caleb Mills Award for Distinguished Teaching, making her and her late husband, Dr. James B. Misenheimer, Jr., who had received the award in 1980, the first married couple to be so honored. She published several scholarly articles in her fields of interest, including Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, Charles Dickens, and Jessamyn West; and had the honor of presenting two of her articles to The Charles Lamb Society of London. Professor Misenheimer loved to travel, visiting all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries during her lifetime. She flew to Point Barrow, Alaska, over 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in 1973; and sailed around Cape Horn, South America, on the Queen Mary 2 in 2006. She also had a lifelong passion for the live theater, opera, and ballet, enjoying performances in New York, London, and regional theaters all over the United States. Professor Misenheimer was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. James B. Misenheimer, Jr.; her parents, Ernest L. Cowart and Lula Mae Hutcherson Cowart, of Waco, Texas; her paternal grandparents, Thomas A. Cowart and Rebecca Ann Cowart, of Tucson, Arizona; and her maternal grandparents, James Silvester Hutcherson and Rosa Caroline Fitzgerald Hutcherson, of Palestine, Texas. Among her survivors are her daughter, Georgia M. Barker, of Franklin, Tennessee; her sons, James B. Misenheimer III, of Trophy Club, Texas, and Quentin W. Cowart Misenheimer, of Iron Station, North Carolina; her son-in-law, David Barker; her daughters-in-law, Karen Harpham Misenheimer and Heather Dill Misenheimer; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and her sister-in-law, Judy Misenheimer Kimmey, of Kerrville, Texas. A Memorial Service will be conducted at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, at Callahan & Hughes Funeral Home, 605 S. 25th Street, with Dr. William Coker officiating. Visitation is scheduled prior to the service from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Private burial will take place at a later time in Brookeland, Texas. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Professor Misenheimer's memory would be welcome at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, PO Box 393, Hohenwald, Tennessee 38462; or at the Brookeland Cemetery Fund, Brookeland, Texas 75931. Funeral information is also available at www.callahanandhughes.com
