Liz Carpenter

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Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter (September 1, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was a writer, feminist, editor, media consultant, speaker, and public relations specialist. Carpenter was born in historic Salado, Texas, south of Bell County.

Her 24-room home in 1936 was named a state historic monument.

A plaque was unveiled in 1967 to show that Carpenter had once resided there.

She and her family migrated to Austin, Texas, at the age of seven.

Carpenter was at the forefront of the Women's Movement when it was announced and never stepped away from her role.

Her efforts and causes ranged from supporting high-tech to fighting cancer.

She was often described as the "funniest woman in politics" until her death, and was often referred to as a public speaker before her death.

Early life

Carpenter was born in Salado, Texas, in the great-grandparents' antebellum home. In 1936, the 24-room Robertson House was designated as a state historic monument. A plaque was unveiled in 1967 to indicate that Carpenter had once resided there. Elijah Robertson, her great-grandfather's, has a monument to Carpenter on the campus of Salado College, which was established by her grandmother. She and her family immigrated to Austin, Texas, at the age of seven.

Carpenter began her journalism work at Austin High School in Austin, Texas, as the editor of the Austin Maroon school newspaper. Leslie E. "Les" Carpenter, another young journalist (canada). The newspaper's business manager, 1921–1974, was Albert Wilson (1921–1974) of Austin. Both the two became best friends, majored in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, and they worked together on the University of Texas's The Daily Texan, the university newspaper. Liz Carpenter was a member of the Texas Orange Jackets, the University's oldest women's honorary service group. When Liz was elected vice president of the student body, she vehemently supported her position.

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Media and political career

Carpenter began reporting on the Austin American-Statesman in 1942. She covered presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy as a Washington reporter for eighteen years.

After being discharged from the United States Navy during World War II, Les and Liz Carpenter were married on June 17, 1944. Carpenter News Bureau was founded in the National Press Building in Washington, D.C., and the White House covered Congress and the White House for the next ten years. When their two children, Scott and Christy, were born, she missed work just for a short time.

At the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California, she was still a working reporter. She joined Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign for Vice President in 1960 and travelled on his international missions as a press spokeswoman. She became the first female executive assistant to the vice president after Kennedy's election.

Carpenter was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, just before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On his return to Washington, she wrote the fifty-words that Johnson used: she drafted the fifty-eight words: Johnson used the word to describe herself:

Carpenter was the first professional newswoman to be press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson (1963–1969), for whom she also served as staff director following Johnson's ascension to the presidency. At Johnson's request, Carpenter assembled several other employees as an informal "White House Humor Group" group, which would make amusing remarks to the President's addresses.

Ruffles and Flourishes, her account of her White House experiences after the Johnson administration ended in 1969, was published.

Since leaving the White House, she served as Vice President of Hill and Knowlton in Washington. In 1971, she was one of the founders of the National Women's Political Caucus and co-chair of ERAmerica, traveling around the world to press for the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.

President Gerald Ford nominated her to the International Women's Year Commission, by President Jimmy Carter to serve as Assistant Secretary of Education for Public Affairs, and by President Bill Clinton to represent the White House Committee on Aging.

Carpenter served on the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1977 to 1983.

Literary career

Les Carpenter died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-two in 1974, just a year after Lyndon Johnson's death. "The love for Texas, the University of Texas, and the LBJ Library brought me right home" in 1976. She purchased "Grass Roots," a house in the West Lake Hills overlooking the Austin skyline and the Colorado River.

Unplanned Parenthood, Random House 1994; Getting More, Simon and Schuster 1986; and countless journals and forays on the lecture circuit. Starting With a Laugh was published by Eakin Press and launched at the National Women's Museum in Dallas with amusing speech writing. "George the First to George the Worst," Bright Sky Press' most recent book, Presidential Humor, was a collection of quips and quotes from "George the First to George the Worst."

Carpenter wrote an article for the Reader's Digest in the early 1980s about living well after being sick of an illness, including the poem "Warning" by British poet Jenny Joseph, which ended the story with the words "I am an old woman" and "does not suit me." This led to the poem's fame throughout the United States, thanks in large part to its adoption by the greetings card industry and later, the establishment of the Red Hat Society.

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