QUE PASA
Newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico
March 2014
Elizabeth Garrett
By Peggy Chong
I have been getting to know my New Mexico home, and that includes learning some of the history of the blind here as well. I have found one blind woman that many of you may know about, but I did not. I would like to share her story with you.
Elizabeth Garrett was born in November of 1885 in Eagle Creek in the White Mountains of New Mexico. She was the third of eight children to Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett and Apolinaria Gutierrez. When Elizabeth was six months old, the family moved to a ranch about five miles east of Roswell. Elizabeth was blind from infancy.
The Garrett family is well-known in New Mexico. Elizabeth's father, Pat Garrett, was a sheriff and gained much fame as the man who killed Billy the Kid. Elizabeth's mother came from a family that boasted of many talented Spanish musicians. Elizabeth gave her mother's side of the family the credit for her musical talent.
Elizabeth's childhood was no different from that of her brothers and sisters. She played hard with her siblings, rode horses, and climbed trees with the best of them. One day, at about the age of six, while swinging on the limb of an apple tree in the yard by herself, she composed her first song. She sang about apple trees and buzzing bees. Mr. and Mrs. Garrett encouraged their daughter to take risks and to be outgoing. They did not want her blindness to stand in the way of Elizabeth becoming all she wanted to be.
When she was six, her parents took her to the School for the Blind in Austin, Texas. Learning Braille gave her the freedom to write down the verses that would eventually become parts of the many songs that she wrote and sold. After graduating, Elizabeth was accredited to teach music. Her apartment in El Paso served as her studio. She remained in Austin, Texas after graduation, earning her living by teaching music and piano. Her performances earned her money as well. In 1914, she made an extensive multi-state tour of the Southwest, singing and playing piano; many of the songs were her own compositions. She sang at the YMCA at least once a week at noon in the early 1910's. Later in life, she sang across the Southwest in places such as Carlsbad Caverns and to prisoners in Sing Sing. During her 40's, she traveled across the country singing, taking and teaching music classes. Her concerts were in New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, and other states. Her voice was so pleasing to the ear that a newspaper labeled her the "Songbird of the Southwest."
In 1915, she wrote "Oh, Fair New Mexico" and performed it for the first time at a pavilion in Cloudcroft. After singing the song to the New Mexico State Legislature in 1917, it was enthusiastically voted New Mexico's official song. In 1937, the New Mexico State Legislature introduced and passed a bill that provided Elizabeth a monthly stipend for the rest of her life in honor of the song that promoted New Mexico.
In 1917, Elizabeth got an opportunity to go to New York and teach music to blinded veterans of the first World War. She borrowed money for the trip from some of the local businessmen in Austin. Before she left, many groups that she sang for also presented her with gifts, some being money. The Railroad Workers gave her a leather purse with five $10 gold pieces to take on her trip.
Elizabeth heard about the new dog school that opened in Morristown, New Jersey that trained dogs to act as a guide for the blind. It took a few years for her to be able to attend the school and get a dog, but she did so around 1937. Her dog Tinka was with her until the night she died. Tinka was not her only animal friend: She also had a bird named Jerry and a cat named Smutty for many years. According to Elizabeth, Smutty the cat was the ruler of the home.
One of Elizabeth's most famous desires was to build her own home. She did so with the help of two friends, Frank Stanhardt, and architect Col. "Scotty" Andrew, when moving back to Roswell in the 1920's. It was a five-room home at 12 S. Lea Ave. and was filled with prize gifts from family and friends such as Navajo rugs, coffee tables, stools, chairs, and a good deal of artwork, which would later inspire some of her songs. She called her home "La Casa." It was said that Elizabeth kept her house spotless, better than many of the sighted women in town. Her wood floors were highly-polished and the figurines were always dusted. Elizabeth did her own laundry and ironing, never thinking that blindness would be a hindrance to owning, caring for and living in her own house by herself.
Many articles speak of her outgoing and warm personality, winning her many friends no matter where she went. Elizabeth took interest in her fellow blind. She visited the School for the Blind in Alamogordo many times. In 1928, she represented the Governor in giving a silver cup to the student who excelled the most during that past school year. She worked for the Society for the Prevention of Blindness in Chicago as the Extension Secretary, giving presentations and singing at club meetings, representing the Society.
One of Elizabeth's friends was Helen Keller, and they were in the public spotlight at the same time. Helen invited Elizabeth to her home, and this began a lifelong friendship. Before the first meeting with Helen Keller, Elizabeth took lessons in Signed Language so she could talk directly with Helen--another example of Elizabeth's initiative and warmth toward others.
Two books that chronicle Elizabeth's life are A Place of Her Own by Ruth K. Hall, and I Have Never Seen: Blind From Infancy by William F. Cavitt. She was written about in many books about the Southwest and New Mexico. Hundreds of newspaper articles chronicling her activities could fill many scrapbooks. An interview with Elizabeth is preserved in the WPA Writers Collection at the Library of Congress.