Carter Casteel
A True Texas Woman

“You don’t go around whining. You put on your boots, and you go on.”

Meet a West Texas woman, and you know she comes from hardy stock. A modern-day “true woman,” Carter Casteel was raised by strong women and on West Texas politics and euphemisms like “You don’t go around whining. You put on your boots, and you go on.”

Now, after a career dedicated to education and legislative reform, she starts a new chapter in her life . . . retirement. Well, sort of.
The former District 73 State Representative is still working full-time as a lawyer at her firm Casteel and Casteel with her son, Barron, and daughter, Cheryl. And, she just started a legislative lobbying group, Casteel & Roberts (www.casteelroberts.com), with her friend, Cary Roberts. Though the list of local organizations she is involved with has narrowed slightly, she still stays involved in the community.
She is enjoying spending time with her grandchildren – Travis, Catherine, Morrigan and James Carter “Jace” – and husband Tom. “He actually thanked my opponent (Nathan Macias), because now I can go home and eat with my husband,” Carter said.
In a hotly debated campaign, where Carter ultimately demanded a ballot recount, Macias defeated Carter for the 73rd District seat. But Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio had reportedly donated nearly $1 million toward the Macias’ campaign – supposedly as a plan to defeat Carter and other Republicans who had voted against a school voucher bill – something Leininger supported.
Casteel hopes to use her lobbying group to keep the same thing from happening again. “I want the voter who makes $30,000 a year and donates to a campaign to know his vote is just as important as someone who volunteers $1 billion to a campaign,” she said.
Carter also is enjoying spending time with her Aunt Hellen – one of the many strong women who influenced her life. “They lived lives where things weren’t easy,” Carter said. Her mom, Ilda Vernon, helped raise her four brothers when she was growing up. She married Franklin Carter Barron and they had one child. Franklin was known as “Big Carter” while his daughter was known as “Little Carter.” “They had me late in life,” she said. “He was 47 and she was 33.”
Carter’s strong work ethic and dedication to civil service was handed down to her from her parents. The couple stayed busy in their community. They were active in their church and community organizations. And Ilda was the first woman in West Texas elected to a city office. “She was city secretary, and in those days, women didn’t serve as city secretary” Carter said. “She also founded the Ward County Library.” In 1952, she was named Woman of the Year by a local organization in Monahans. “That was very important,” Carter said.
Carter’s dad worked for 43 years for Gulf Oil Permian Basin and when she was 10 years old, her 80-year-old grandmother became her roommate. “She was a wonderful grandmother,” Carter said. She was another strong woman who influenced her life. “She would have a whiskey at 11 a.m.,” Carter said. “And she would dress up with pearls and have a dinner guest over at 5 p.m. We were made to rise if someone came into a room. She never failed to vote. I think 1960 was her last vote when she voted for JFK. She had a very strong influence on me.”
Carter’s mom died when Carter was 14 years old. During the last year of her life, she had been taking correspondent courses as part of a degree program at the University of Texas. “I remember she died on a Tuesday, and I was back in school on a Thursday,” Carter said.
Carter was never made to feel she couldn’t do anything, even if she was raised during an era of limitations. “When I was in high school, I couldn’t be the president of the student council, but I got to be the vice president,” she said.
Carter graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from the University of Texas in 1965. She would later earn her master’s degree from Southwest Texas State University and her law degree from St. Mary’s School of Law.
She taught school for 17 years, nine of those in the Comal Independent School District. In 1985, she began working as an attorney at her practice, Casteel & Casteel, P.L.L.C. She served as Comal County Judge from 1990-1998. She served as District 73 State Representative from January of 2003 to 2006, earning Rookie of the Year by her peers in the Texas House of the Representatives. She was given honorable mention for her legislative achievements in Texas Monthly’s 2005 “Ten Best.”
Looking back at her career, some of the accomplishments Carter is proudest of came when she sat in the seat of Comal County judge.
She is proud of the fact that the county established area buildings around the courthouse centralizing county proceedings and administration. The old Reagan Burrus building was bought and remodeled to house the current Comal County Tax Assessor Collector’s Office.
“And we bought the First Federal Bank Building that now houses the health department,” Carter said. “We also built the Juvenile and Adult Probation Building. What happened was that we were running out of room. Even though we had added on to the courthouse, we still had a lot of people that were in rentals. We were crowded.”
Carter said that while serving as county judge, she worked with a commissioners court that was able to secure a grant for the preservation of the Faust Street Bridge, build three new Justice of the Precinct offices and expand the Comal County Jail.
“I don’t think there were any unpaved roads left when we were through,” she said. “We built the rural recycling center. We had a lot of growth - a lot of good things.”
During her years as county judge, she also formed a parks advisory board. “One of the things parents told us was there was no place for children to play,” she said. She stated that the county worked with the city to establish parks and soccer fields in Bulverde, New Braunfels and Canyon Lake, including the new Hidden Valley Sports Complex at the base of Canyon Lake Dam.
Carter is also very proud of her involvement in the establishment of Smithson Valley High School and Bill Brown Elementary School and the expansion of schools in Comal ISD.
Carter’s husband Tom “has always played a different role,” said Carter. “I have had the opportunities I had because Tom wanted me to be who I wanted to be.”
There were only two times in the couple’s life, Carter said, that Tom made it clear what would happen. “In 1972, we came to New Braunfels and he said, ‘We are going to live here,’”. Then, in 1998, the flood took everything the Casteels had, but Carter still loved the river house. Just recently the couple took a trip to Ruidoso and “Tom Casteel said, ‘We are going to buy this house,’”. The river house was as good as sold.
As she continues on this newest chapter of her life, Carter hopes she has been an inspiration to her children and grandchildren. She has concerns. In a letter to her constituents in March this past year, she wrote: “I believe it is important for them, and everyone, to leave life better than they found it.”

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