Proud Products of Texas Public Schools

Liz Carpenter

Graduate of Austin High School
Austin, Texas

Liz Carpenter—a sixth-generation Texan—was a political legend, a longtime feminist, an author, and a lecturer. A former spokeswoman in the Johnson Administration as press secretary and staff director for Lady Bird Johnson, she was later tapped by President Ford for the International Women's Year Commission in 1976 and 1980.

President Carter named her assistant secretary of Education for Public Affairs. She was a major speaker at the 1976 Women's Year in Houston.

In naming her to the advisory committee of the White House Conference on Aging, President Clinton is the fourth president to appoint Carpenter to a position of trust. She began her lifelong writing career in Washington in 1942 as a reporter covering the Roosevelt Administration. Carpenter passed away in 2010.

“I attended Austin High School for four years and was editor of the Austin Maroon. What did I learn? My journalism teacher, Dr. Markham, led me to be a lifetime reporter. I also met Leslie Carpenter, and we became great friends and later husband and wife after going through the School of Journalism at The University of Texas. The teachers were first-rate; most of them had made teaching their life.”

—Liz Carpenter