Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Sutherland Carpenter was a nationally known White House official, writer, and speaker whose ashes were scattered on Salado College Hill, where her parents met, bringing her life full circle. Her family ties reached deep into Texas history: her great-great-grandfather Sterling Clack Robertson migrated from Tennessee to Central Texas, became the empresario of Robertson's Colony, and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, which her cousin thrice removed George Childress drafted. Robertson's son, Elijah Sterling Robertson, founded Salado College and built the plantation house where Liz was born. On her paternal side, her Sutherland ancestors migrated from Alabama to form the Settlement in Jackson County, and her great-great-grandfather George Sutherland fought at the Battle of San Jacinto after his son William died at the Alamo. Her family also included notable women, among them her great-aunt Luella Robertson Fulmore, who advocated educational equality for women at Salado College, and the suffragist Birdie Johnson, the first Democratic national committeewoman from Texas. After earning a journalism degree from the University of Texas in 1942, Liz moved to Washington, DC, married her high-school sweetheart Leslie E. Carpenter, helped form a news bureau, and raised two children, Scott and Christy. In 1961, she joined Vice President Johnson's staff and later wrote words for the new president that comforted a shocked nation after President Kennedy's assassination. As Press Secretary and Staff Director to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, she stood at the forefront of initiatives including Head Start, beautification, and the creation of many national parks. After leaving the White House, she wrote five books, traveled the nation as a speaker and humorist, and settled again in Austin in 1976. A passionate feminist, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus, co-chaired a national campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and for 25 years served as a trustee of the Robertson Colony-Salado College Foundation.