Frances Ann Penfound, known as Penny, was born December 27, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Dr. William Theodore Penfound, a botany professor at Tulane University, and his wife Ellen Armstrong Penfound. She passed August 3, 2026 under hospice care. Her father was 100% Cornish from Loraine, Ohio and her mother came from a Scots Irish clan in Northwestern New Jersey. They met at Oberlin College. Education was paramount to the Penfounds. Penny's older brother Teddy was a brilliant engineer in the defense industry and helped designed the cruise missile. Her younger brother, Tommy, was a pilot. Penny attended Tulane University and pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma but transferred to Oklahoma University when her father took a professorship at OU.

After graduating, she took a job working with social services in Norman, Oklahoma, where she met her coworker and future husband, H. B. "Woody" Woodward. How ironic that Woody Woodward married Penny Penfound, both using a nickname derived from their surname. Woody had recently graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University but soon entered the Air Force. Uncle Sam sent him to San Antonio where he used his biology degree to teach army medics at Fort Sam Houston. Upon completing his military duty, Woody moved to Houston to attend Baylor College of Medicine and became an obstetrician. While Woody studied Penny gave birth to sons Mike (also known as Woody) and Steve and daughter, Janet. Later, Sue Ellen completed the family.

Penny worked as a third-grade teacher at Alcott Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District. As the family finances improved, the Woodward's moved to the Glenbrook Valley subdivision in southeast Houston, adjacent to Hobby Airport. They united with the then booming Park Place Baptist Church, which preached the saving message of eternal life as a free gift to all who simply believed Jesus' promise. Woody and Penny joined Golfcrest Country Club where they both became avid golfers and tennis players. Penny scored two holes-in-one and participated in many club championship tournaments as well as Houston inter club competitions. She loved playing bridge, eating out at Sonny Looks' steakhouse or the Golfcrest grill, and family vacations. In 1969, the family moved to the suburbs of Pearland, where Golfcrest Country Club had relocated. Woody and Penny changed their church membership to First Baptist Church of Pearland, and then later to Sagemont (Baptist) Church, pastored by their beloved friend, Dr. John Morgan. Penny and Woody enjoyed a rich life of friendships centered around church and golf. In Penny's later years, especially after Woody died in 2003 from cancer, her walk with God became even more important. She loved Bible study and volunteering at the local crisis pregnancy center. She spent the last five years of her life in assisted living.

Penny devoted herself to various civic pursuits such as the PTA. She engaged in politics, attending the 1964 Goldwater rally in Houston. She served as a precinct worker for George H. W. Bush's successful congressional campaign. She knocked on doors for Richard Nixon. She served as vice-chairman of the Brazoria County GOP. She served the Pearland library. She volunteered at the local crisis pregnancy center which counseled young women to keep their precious babies alive.

We will remember Penny as a positive person, a perennial optimist. She was a dutiful spouse, caring for Woody in his last forty years of battling Crohn's disease, and then at the end stage, bladder and prostate cancer. She inherited her father's botanical interests and also her parents' love of birding. She and Woody enjoyed many golf vacations to far flung destinations such as the Dominican Republic, Scotland, and Jupiter (Florida). In later years, restricted by her pain and immobility, she still enjoyed watching every televised golf tournament and her weekly outings to the home of daughter Sue Ellen.

Penny Penfound was preceded in death by her parents, William Theodore Penfound and Ellen Armstrong Penfound, and by her two brothers Teddy and Tommy, and by her beloved husband H. B. "Woody" Woodward. She is survived by her son David Michael "Woody" Woodward (and his spouse, Tracie, and their three children Jessica, Weston, and Taylor James), and her son Steven York Woodward, and her daughter Janet Lee Burke (and her husband Rory and children Matt and Rachel), and her daughter Sue Ellen Campanaro (and her husband Mario and daughter Ellen Lobb). She is also survived by four great-granddaughters.

The family has the firm assurance that Penny is with the Lord Jesus, not because of her inherent goodness or righteousness, but rather because she believed the apostle Paul's promise found in Acts 16:31, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Anyone can have this assurance because Jesus promised eternal life to all who simply believe in Him for eternal life, a life that cannot be earned and cannot be lost.

The family will celebrate her life at a private service.