Marj Carpenter

DALLAS (AP) — Marj Carpenter, who pushed international missionary work while briefly leading the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination in the mid-1990s following a journalism career in West Texas that included covering millionaire swindler Billie Sol Estes, has died. She was 93.

Carpenter, who once described herself as “sinfully proud” of being Presbyterian and traveled to more than 120 countries on the behalf of Presbyterian Church (USA), died Saturday at an assisted-living facility in the West Texas city of Big Spring, her son, Jim Bob Carpenter, said Monday.

He said she had a “weak heart,” so they assumed it “just finally gave out.” Carpenter said his mother was “completely sharp” till the end.