1. Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter was a writer, feminist, reporter, media advisor, speechwriter, political humorist, and public relations expert.
21 Facts About Liz Carpenter
1. 2.
Liz Carpenter was an ardent supporter of the Women's Movement when it began and never wavered from her convictions.
3.
Liz Carpenter's lighthearted memoir of her time in the White House, Ruffles and Flourishes, published in 1969, was a national best-seller.
4.
Liz Carpenter was born in her great-grandparents' antebellum home in Salado in southern Bell County, Texas.
5.
In 1967, a plaque was unveiled to indicate that Liz Carpenter had once lived there.
6.
In 1942, Liz Carpenter began covering the White House and Congress for the Austin American-Statesman.
7.
Liz Carpenter was still a working reporter at the time of the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California.
8.
Liz Carpenter soon joined the staff of Lyndon B Johnson in his campaign for Vice President in 1960 and traveled on his foreign missions as a press spokeswoman.
9.
Liz Carpenter drafted the fifty-eight words that Johnson used on his return to Washington:.
10.
Liz Carpenter assembled several other staffers as an informal "White House Humor Group" to add humorous remarks to the President's speeches, at Johnson's request.
11.
Liz Carpenter was a vice president of Hill and Knowlton in Washington after leaving the White House.
12.
Liz Carpenter was appointed by President Gerald Ford 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 serve on the White House Conference on Aging.
13.
Liz Carpenter was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1977 to 1983.
14.
Liz Carpenter's books include: Unplanned Parenthood, Random House 1994; Getting Better All the Time, Simon and Schuster 1986, as well as countless articles and forays on the lecture circuit.
15.
Liz Carpenter wrote an article for the Reader's Digest in the early 1980s, about enjoying life having recovered from an illness, closing the article with the poem "Warning" by British poet Jenny Joseph, which had the opening lines "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me".
16.
Liz Carpenter was named a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Texas in 1975, and in 1990 was named distinguished alumnae of the Department of Communications.
17.
Liz Carpenter was named by Governor Mark White to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame.
18.
Liz Carpenter was given the ProBene Award of the College of Liberal Arts.
19.
The Liz Carpenter Lectureship was established in 1984 by a group of her friends, including Erma Bombeck and Mark Russell, who gave a performance at the Paramount Theater to raise funds for it.
20.
The Liz Carpenter Award is given annually for the best scholarly book on the history of women and Texas published during the calendar year.
21.
Liz Carpenter was the recipient of Alpha Phi's Frances E Willard Award in 1980.