Liz Carpenter, journalist, feminist, Johnson aide

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. The cause of death was pneumonia, her daughter, Christy Carpenter, said in a telephone interview on Saturday. She said her mother had been admitted to University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin on Wednesday. A dedicated feminist, Ms. Carpenter was a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus and joint chairwoman of ERAmerica, an organization that unsuccessfully fought for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.