Liz Carpenter (1920–2010,) fully Mary Elizabeth Sutherland, was an American journalist and political adviser. Widely known for her caustic and sometimes lewd wit, she was an aide to Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson.
Born in Salado, Texas, Carpenter began working in 1942 as a reporter in Washington, D.C., for the Tufty News Bureau. She and her husband later opened the Carpenter News Bureau (1945.)
Carpenter served as administrative assistant to U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson 1961–63. For him, she wrote the brief speech that he made upon disembarking from Air Force One after being sworn in as U.S. president following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963. She then gained national attention as staff director and press secretary 1963–69 to Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird Johnson.
Carpenter was a cofounder in 1971 of the National Women’s Political Caucus. She also worked as the assistant secretary (1980–81) for public affairs in the Department of Education. Carpenter served on President Gerald Ford’s International Women’s Year Commission 1976 and President Bill Clinton’s advisory committee of the White House Conference on Aging 1993.
Carpenter’s Ruffles and Flourishes (1970) chronicled life among political and international leaders. Her other books include Unplanned Parenthood (1994,) Getting Better All the Time (1986,) Start With a Laugh: An Insider’s Guide to Roasts, Toasts, Eulogies, and Other Speeches (2000,) and Presidential Humor (2006.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Liz Carpenter
A major advantage of age is learning to accept people without passing judgment.
—Liz Carpenter
Topics: Judgement
Instead of looking at life as a narrowing funnel, we can see it ever widening to choose the things we want to do, to take the wisdom we’ve learned and create something.
—Liz Carpenter
Topics: Choice, Choices
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