Carol Jean Vinzant

Carol Vinzant left this earth peacefully on September 26, 2026, at the age of 89, surrounded by three generations of her family singing her favorite hymns.

Carol Jean Mitchell Vinzant, daughter of O.R. and Ruth (Briley) Mitchell, was born on November 19, 1936, in Henderson, Texas. Carol’s family moved to Beaumont in 1941 where they made a home for many years. Her parents raised her and her four siblings to love Jesus, the Bible and the church. Everyone in the family played a musical instrument and loved to sing at home and church. In 7th grade, she told her mother she wanted to marry a preacher to help ensure that she would get to heaven. God answered her prayer seven years later!

Carol’s favorite place on earth was her grandparents’ farm in a small community in Mills County, Texas, called “Ebony.” She found her grandmother’s diaries in a trunk after her death and later wrote a book about her grandmother entitled “Meet Me in the Gloaming.”

Carol graduated from Beaumont High in 1954, receiving special honors in Chemistry. In the fall of 1954, Carol moved to Abilene to attend Abilene Christian College. That December, a tall, handsome young man walked by her and threw a “cherry bomb” near her to get her attention. Don Vinzant became the love of her life.

Carol and Don married on September 10, 1956, right before their junior year of college. Carol graduated college magna cum laude in May of 1957 with a degree in Home Economics. Their first son, Larry, was born while Don was preaching in Winnie, Texas. After that they moved to Lamesa, Texas, to work with the church. Their second son, Danny, was born in Lamesa.

While still at ACC, Carol and Don, along with Don’s cousin, Howard Norton and wife Jane, decided to form a missionary team to teach the good news of Jesus Christ. Fourteen other families joined that commitment. On June 1, 1961, Carol, Don, Larry, and Danny, along with the other families left the port of Houston and set sail for Santos, Brazil, aboard the S.S. Del Norte to become missionaries in São Paulo, Brazil.

Carol was a children’s and ladies’ class Bible teacher in Brazil, and was a contributing author to the Christian Brazilian Women’s magazine, Mulher Cristã. She infused joy and creativity in each class, making the Bible come alive for children and adults. Carol had the gift of hospitality and hosted Easter Egg hunts, Christmas parties, and dinners at their home in Brazil. She and Don invited Brazilians into their home for meals and Bible studies. She had a great sense of humor and performed in skits with Don for their missionary team Christmas parties.

While in Brazil, two more children joined the family: Gene and Caroline. Three boys and a girl, her dream family.

In 1973, the Vinzants moved back to the United States to work with The Village Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They later moved to Austin, Texas, to work with the Northside Church of Christ and later Granbury, Texas, to work with the Granbury Church of Christ. Carol continued to be the consummate preacher’s wife, teaching teen girls’ and ladies’ classes, speaking for women’s retreats, and hosting parties and dinners at their home. She opened her home to many, often hosting visiting preachers and missionary families overnight.

In 1989, Carol and Don moved to Edmond where Don was a Bible professor at Oklahoma Christian University and later became a full-time pulpit minister at the Edmond Church of Christ. During Don’s years of ministry at Edmond Church of Christ, Carol had a ministry of encouragement all her own. Known as “the great attender,” she made a point of being present at all church functions: Bible classes, showers, weddings, funerals and church gatherings, sharing in the important moments in members’ lives. Carol and Don served as college campaign leaders to Brazil and visited and encouraged missionaries all over Brazil. Carol and Don were a team in every way possible.

Carol was also the “great communicator.” She tried to keep in touch with everyone she had ever known from Beaumont, ACC, Brazil, and every place where she and Don ministered as well as every relative on both sides of the family. She sent cards for every occasion. For many years she kept the Brazil team connected through emails. She was famous for her Christmas newsletters with information about her family and pictures of everyone and a poignant thought about keeping Jesus first in our lives.

Carol loved being a wife, mom, grandmother and great-grandmother. She always kept a beautiful, inviting home. She would stock her refrigerator, freezer and pantry with everyone’s favorite food. She could whip up a three-layer cake at midnight after taking a short rest to begin her second shift of the evening. She prayed for her children and grandchildren fervently when they were in crisis, even creating a prayer closet.

When Don died suddenly in 2011 at 74 years of age, Carol’s world shattered. She had been married to him for almost 55 years and couldn’t imagine living one day without him. She decided to move close to her São Paulo Team family, so she sold her home and moved to Abilene. After six years she decided to move closer to her daughter, Caroline. She lived in an apartment in North Richland Hills, Texas, and became a member of the Legacy Church of Christ. She remained active in ladies’ class and many other ministries until her Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2021. She then moved to an assisted living community across the street from Caroline. She placed membership at Keller Church of Christ and relied on kind members to give her a ride every Sunday. As Carol’s disease progressed and she needed more care, her children researched the best places that kept her as close as possible to Caroline.

Both of Carol’s parents ended their years with Alzheimer’s disease and she dreaded receiving the diagnosis herself. She was her mother’s caretaker for many years. She was diagnosed much later in life than her parents, which was a blessing, and she always maintained her cheerful, peaceful personality to the very end. Her facility caretakers loved her so much, especially how she still loved fixing her hair and makeup and picking out a cute outfit with matching jewelry.

Carol lived up to her name, “A song of joy.” Her joy was rooted in her belief that Jesus was her Savior and He is returning again to take us home to heaven. Her children rise and call her blessed.

Carol was preceded in death by her parents, O.R. and Ruth Mitchell, sisters, Marilyn Sheffield and Jan Terrell, husband, Don Eugene Vinzant, and grandson, Preston Allen Vinzant.

She leaves behind her siblings and their spouses: Robert and Jane Mitchell, Jill and Ron Faulkner, and brother-in-law Norman Terrell.

Children and their spouses: Larry and Cheri Vinzant, Danny Vinzant, Gene and Rebecca Vinzant, and Caroline (Vinzant) and Chris John.

Grandchildren and their spouses: Vanessa and John Clinkinbeard, Valerie and Nick Hartley, Judith Vinzant (widow of Preston Vinzant), Sarah and Michael Crouch, Anna and Jay Wiles, John and Mallory Vinzant, Christopher and Abigail John, and Megan and Sam Oliver.

Great-Grandchildren: Logan, Layla and Landon Clinkinbeard, Noah and Andrew Hartley, Abby Obregon, Ophelia and Miranda Vinzant, Elizabeth, Lily and Peter Crouch, Brooklyn and Audrey Vinzant, Titus and Ezra Wiles, and Elliott and Elam John.

Numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews will also miss Cousin Carol Jean and Aunt Carol.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Shoulder to Shoulder Endowment (https://greatcities.org/sao-paulo-endowment/) which helps send missionaries all over Brazil to start new churches.