Ellen Burdine Clayton Garwood

GARWOOD, ELLEN BURDINE CLAYTON (1903~1993) Ellen Burdine Clayton, 89, of Austin, Texas died Saturday, March 20, 1993. She was the daughter of William L. and Susan Vaughan Clayton; she was born in East Orange, New Jersey, on July 21, 1903.

Mrs. Garwood grew up in Oklahoma City and Houston where her father established Anderson, Clayton, and Co., at one time the world's largest cotton merchandising firm. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College, and in later life received a M. A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1927 she married Houston Attorney Wilmer St. John Garwood, who later served as a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1948 to 1959. Theirs was a loving marriage of 60 years.

A devoted and loving mother and wife, Mrs. Garwood was also an author whose work included short stories about life in early Oklahoma City and Houston, political biography, plays and novels. She was a life long supporter of education, the arts, and the needy. She was a founder of St. John's School, Houston, St. Andrew's School, Austin, and Kirby Hall School, Austin, and long time friend and supporter of, among others, St. Edwards University, Austin, Houston-Tillotson College, Austin, the University of Texas, the Deveaux School, and St. Stephens Episcopal School, Austin, where she briefly taught.

Mrs. Garwood firmly believed in the free-enterprise system, free trade, democracy, a strong national defense and traditional values; and, she actively supported many causes and organizations dedicated to furthering these ends, most prominently, but by no means exclusively, the cause of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters.