Enid Nemy published a grand obituary about Liz Carpenter, a remarkable – some would say fierce – octogenarian reporter and feminist, in yesterday’s NY Times.
Liz Carpenter, who spent much of her life working the corridors of power in Washington as a newspaper reporter, an aide to Lyndon B. Johnson when he was vice president and press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson during her years in the White House, died on Saturday in Austin, Tex. She was 89.
She was in the motorcade in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
She wrote the brief speech Mr. Johnson delivered at the foot of Air Force One when he returned to Washington as the 36th president. (“This is a sad time for all people,” he said, adding, “I ask for your help — and God’s.”)
For the next five years, she served as the First Lady’s press secretary.
Widely known for her caustic and sometimes bawdy wit, Ms. Carpenter was irreverent about herself and her access to power during the Johnson years in Washington. She was also one of the few White House staff members who had no qualms about giving as good as she got, no matter the source. “Why don’t you use your head?” Mr. Johnson once bellowed at her.
She bellowed back: “I’m too busy trying to use yours!””
“It never occurred to me not to work,” Ms. Carpenter said in a 1987 interview, shortly after she had undergone a mastectomy, adding, “I had a restless spirit that kept drawing me to new adventures.” She never hesitated, she said, “to charge hell with a bucket of water.”
Read the full obituary. It’s a feisty tribute to Liz Carpenter, a life and a spirit to be remembered!
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