From the White House to the Teenage House: Liz Carpenter’s Unplanned Parenthood

Jenkins Garrett with Liz Carpenter in UTA Library’s Special Collections, 1987

Imagine this scenario: you have lived a full life as a war correspondent, an aide to a president, a press secretary to a First Lady, and a leader in important social movements.

And just as you have retired to what should have been a comfortable life you are suddenly thrust into being a parent again.

That is what really happened to Liz Carpenter, once a key figure in the Lyndon Johnson administration in the 1960s.

But when her brother died in 1993, his three unruly teenagers came to live with Liz Carpenter. And she found herself, at age 73, a mother once again.

In her 1994 book Unplanned Parenthood Carpenter describes the unique challenges she faced. But she also had some wise and insightful thoughts about those Generation X people she was raising, and their peers.

So here now, from 1994, Liz Carpenter.

Liz Carpenter died in 2010. She was 89.


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Al Roker

Photo: Brian Solis

Not all funny people on TV are comedians. Some are weathermen, like NBC’s Al Roker.

For years, Roker has been a fixture on The Today Show. And in 2000, he wrote a funny book about fatherhood, and especially the challenges of raising children years apart in age.

But as you’re about to hear, it wasn’t all jokes and humor. Al Roker had some serious and poignant things to say about fatherhood.

So here now, from 2000, Al Roker:

Al Roker is 66 now. He’s been with NBC for 42 years.