Liz Carpenter

Liz Carpenter. Girl From Salado. Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Sutherland Carpenter was a nationally known White House official, writer, and speaker. Her choice of Salado College Hill, where her parents met, for the scattering of her ashes completed full circle her remarkable life journey. , Her great-great-grandfather, Sterling Clack Robertson, migrated from Tennessee to Central Texas to become the Empresario of Robertson's Colony. He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, which Liz's cousin thrice removed, George Childress, drafted. Robertson's son, Elijah Sterling Robertson, founded Salado College and built the plantation house where Liz was born. Meanwhile, Liz's paternal Sutherland forbears migrated from Alabama to form the Settlement in Jackson County. Her great-great-grandfather, George Sutherland, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto after his son William died at the Alamo., Liz's family tree also sprouted talented, adventurous women equal to the men, including great-aunts, Luella Robertson Fulmore, who eloquently advocated educational equality for women at Salado College, and the prominent suffragist, Birdie Johnson, who became the first Democratic national committeewoman from Texas., After obtaining a journalism degree from the University of Texas in 1942, Liz headed for Washington, DC, where she married her high-school sweetheart, Leslie E. Carpenter. They formed news bureau and raised two children, Scott and Christy. In 1961, she joined Vice President Johnson's staff, later writing the new President's words that would comfort a nation in shock after President Kennedy's assassination. As Press Secretary and Staff Director to First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, Liz was in the forefront of such major initiatives as Head Start, beautification, and the creation of many national parks., After leaving the White House, she wrote five books and traveled the nation as speaker and humorist, settling again in Austin in 1976. A passionate feminist, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus and co-chaired a national campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. For 25 years, she proudly served as a trustee of the Robertson Colony-Salado College Foundation., Summing up her remarkable story, she once wrote that: "Life has always led me where things were happening; where people were exhilarating, where actions and laughter came quickly."