Mary Elizabeth Carpenter, Birthplace of White House Aide

The plaque stops in 1967 with Carpenter's job as press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson. Later she wrote Ruffles and Flourishes about her White House years. In 1971 she helped found the National Women's Political Caucus and co-chaired ERAmerica, which pushed for the Equal Rights Amendment. President Ford named her to the International Women's Year Commission, and President Carter made her assistant secretary of education for public affairs. On November 22, 1963, she drafted the fifty-eight words Lyndon Johnson spoke on landing in Washington. She died in Austin in 2010.

What the plaque says

Mary Elizabeth Carpenter, Birthplace of White House Aide Great-granddaughter of builders. Daughter of Thomas S. and Mary Elizabeth (Robertson) Sutherland. First woman vice president of student body, University of Texas. Married Leslie Carpenter; has 2 children. In 1954 was president Women's National Press Club. First woman ever to serve as Executive Assistant to the Vice President of the United States, 1961. First newswoman to be staff director and Press Secretary to a First Lady, Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson. Outstanding Women of Texas Series, 1967.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 16 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 23 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 25 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.

More markers nearby

• Home of Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson — steps away
• Main Street Bridges — 0.3 mi
• Salado — 0.3 mi
• Salado Creek — 0.3 mi