DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now Bell County has produced its share of remarkable Texans, but every once in a while a place turns out somebody who goes and rewrites what's possible — not once, not twice, but so many times you start to lose count. Mary Elizabeth Carpenter came from roots sunk deep in this ground.
Great-granddaughter of builders. Her mother was Mary Elizabeth Robertson Sutherland, her father Thomas S. Sutherland, and whatever they were doing raising that girl, they were doing it right.
She went to the University of Texas, and right there she did something nobody had done before — she became the first woman ever to serve as vice president of the student body. First. Ever.
Now that might sound like a footnote, but hold onto that word "first," because it is going to follow Mary Elizabeth Carpenter around like a faithful hound. She married Leslie Carpenter, and together they had two children. And somewhere in the middle of building a family, she also built a career that had Washington D.C. sitting up and paying attention.
By 1954, she was president of the Women's National Press Club. And then — and here is where the story really opens up — in 1961, she became the first woman ever to serve as Executive Assistant to the Vice President of the United States. The first.
Full stop. Nobody had held that position as a woman before she walked through that door. And she wasn't finished.
She went on to become the first newswoman ever to serve as staff director and Press Secretary to a First Lady — Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson.
Two historic firsts tied up together, and she carried them both without breaking stride. In 1967, she was recognized in the Outstanding Women of Texas Series — which, given everything this Bell County daughter had already accomplished, seems like the least Texas could do. Great-granddaughter of builders.
Turns out, the building never really stopped.
What the marker says
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.