Memorial services for Christina Claire Tweet will be held at 4:00 P.M., Saturday, November 2, 2024, at Northminister  Church, in Monroe, Louisiana.  Rev. Jillian Hankamer will officiate. Visitation will be held from 5:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M., Friday, November 1, 2024, at Kilpatrick Funeral Home in West Monroe.

Christina was born in Racine, Wisconsin, September 21, 1954, a proud 3^rd generation Norwegian-American, to Marion (Holman) Tweet and Orlando Tweet. After high school at Case Senior High School in Racine, Christina went to St. Olaf College (1972-76; B.A. in Political Science/Religion, cum laude) in Northfield, Minnesota, where both her parents had earned their baccalaureate degrees. From there, she went on to earn a degree from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago (1976-78; M.A.). In the 70s, she spent interim and summer months volunteering at locations across the USA, such as working for Morris Udall’s presidential campaign (1976) in Washington, DC. Another was Holden Village, a retreat center of the American Lutheran Church northeast of Seattle in the wilderness of the Northern Cascades Mountains (1976, 1977; Chelan, WA). She also volunteered as a parish worker for Many Farms Lutheran Church on the Navajo Nation reservation in northeastern Arizona.

Christina matriculated at Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1979, during which time she served 10-weeks in Clinical Pastoral Education as on-call chaplain in Hennepin County Medical Center (summer 1981) and in the third year, she served an internship with Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City (1981-82). In addition to usual pastoral duties like preaching and teaching confirmation, a component of her assignment was to research the LDS church that culminated in coordination of a symposium for Lutheran pastors on Mormonism. After her internship concluded, she remained in Salt Lake City until August working at the B. Dalton bookshop in Trolley Square. After returning to St. Paul, she worked at two B. Dalton stores, ending as a supervisor at the Maplewood Mall store (1983-84).

On September 10, 1983, John proposed to Christina, and she accepted. They married on 27 May 1984 in a beautiful service inserted into the Sunday morning liturgy at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. By then, John had been accepted into the doctoral program in zoology at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, where he started in August of 1984 after the move to Illinois. In 1986, Christina started a second internship with the Seminary, serving as intern pastor of Gila Lutheran Church in rural Jasper County in southeastern Illinois, during when son, Charles Maxwell Tweet Carr was born at the hospital in Effingham, December 27, 1986. After John completed his coursework in 1988, the family moved back to St. Paul and lived in Seminary housing on campus. Christina began her senior year and John made occasional trips to complete aspects of his research. Christina completed her coursework and served as a Teaching Assistant her final semester and graduated with her M. Div. degree in May of 1989. In late 1989, the family moved for husband John’s new job as a Research Scientist at Conservation International, a science-based conservation NGO headquartered in Washington, DC. We lived in DC for three months before moving to Arlington, Virginia. She found employment at a Borders Book Shop in Rockville, Maryland, concentrating on special orders, floor sales, and maintaining the religion and philosophy sections. Her last job in the area was as an Assistant Manager at the Waldenbooks in Georgetown Park Mall in DC. When John took a temporary academic position at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, the family relocated to Saginaw where Christina worked as a part-time Visitation Pastor with St. John’s Lutheran Church (1995-96). The family relocated again in 1996 when John accepted a tenure-track position in Biology at Northeastern Louisiana University. John moved first in January and then he moved Christina and Charlie into our new house in West Monroe over the summer. Christina had wanted Charlie to finish out the school year in Saginaw while she was still employed and after Charlie’s disability had been diagnosed as autism. Christina worked for a time as a Sales Associate in the Children’s department at Dillard’s in Pecanland Mall. She also worked for AmeriCorps with the West Monroe Senior Center for a couple of years and engaged in volunteer activities such as the Second Chance Tutoring program, bible study leader at Messiah Lutheran Church, and an officer of the local Autism Society of America chapter. She also spent some time working on a Gerontology certificate at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Her church life changed as the family moved its membership to Northminster Baptist Church where she sang for years in the choir, a lifetime activity she enjoyed.

She maintained an active life of the mind always, and nurtured many interests such as reading, crosswords, puzzle books, bookshops, collectibles, art, history, and issues of science and religion. She loved various colorful things that she surrounded her family with, like clown and Betty Boop paraphernalia, art books, children’s books, Christmas figurines and stuffed animals, also covering other holidays like Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. She collected small ephemera like stamps, historic postcards, and book markers. Christina always led a life in service to others, touching many lives throughout her journey. In later years, she focused her energies and attention more so on her family, especially Charlie, and she loved all the additions as nieces and nephews grew in number, and more recently with the addition of grand-nieces and nephews. She championed their causes and vicariously enjoyed their travels and accomplishments at a time in life when she was less inclined to travel.

Christina was preceded in death by her parents, Orlando Tweet and Marion (Holman) Tweet.

Christina is survived by her husband, John L. Carr; son, Charles M.T. Carr; sisters, Jean Ellen Tweet and Victoria Tweet-Griffin; brother-in-law, Douglas D. Carr; aunt, MaryAnn Holman; nieces and nephews, Jennifer Griffin, Kristin Griffin, Andrew Sill, Peder Sill, Eliot Sill; grand-nieces and nephews, Mariah DeLaCruz, Isaiah Griffin, Luther Sill, and Zora Sill; along with other extended family and friends.

Christina enjoyed the beauty of flowers, and she also championed causes such as world hunger (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America-ELCA; www.elca.org/Our-Work/Relief-and-Development/ELCA-World-Hunger) and environmental issues (HERD Elephant Orphanage in South Africa; www.herd.org.za).

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