Roberta P. Crenshaw was an Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

-area philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 and civic pioneer.

Philanthropy

Roberta Crenshaw campaigned for over 60 years to preserve parkland in Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 and supported Austin-area cultural institutions.

Park Philanthropy

She was a motivating force for Austin's Town Lake greenbelt

Green belt

A green belt or greenbelt is a policy and land use designation used in land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighbouring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character and may run through an...

. She lobbied against motorized boating on Town Lake and won. She deserves substantial credit for today's parkland and serene trails around Town Lake. She served on the Austin Parks Board from 1952 to 1970. She helped form the Austin Parks and Recreation Department in 1974 after advocating that the Parks Division of the Public Works Department be moved to the then Recreation Department.

She donated more than 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) to the Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Park in east Austin.
She bought and donated to the city the land for Reed Park in west Austin. (The park was the site of her memorial service.) She advocated the establishment of the Shoal Creek Greenbelt.

She served as Trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association.

Cultural Philanthropy

She helped restore Austin's Paramount Theatre on Congress Avenue. She was a founder and first President of the Austin Ballet Society (now Ballet Austin). She was a charter member of the Women's Symphony League. She helped establish the Laguna Gloria Art Museum. She served on the boards of the Austin Symphony, Laguna Gloria, and the Paramount.

She was a friend and patron to sculptor Charles Umlauf. In 1991, her leadership raised the private funds to build a museum for the Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Zilker Park

Zilker Park

Zilker Metropolitan Park is a recreational area in the heart of south Austin that comprises over of publicly owned land. It is named after its benefactor Andrew Jackson Zilker, who donated the land to the city in 1917. It was developed into the park during the Great Depression in the 1930s...

.

She was one of the founders of the Austin History Center and leader of the Austin Heritage Society.

Professor Sinclair Black holds the Roberta P. Crenshaw Centennial Professorship in Urban Design and Environmental Planning.

Family life

Roberta Purvis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 on April 17, 1914. She came to Austin, Texas in 1932 to attend the University of Texas

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

. She graduated with a liberal arts degree and served the Zeta Tau Alpha

Zeta Tau Alpha

Zeta Tau Alpha is a women's fraternity, founded October 15, 1898 at the State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia. The Executive office is located in Indianapolis, Indiana...

 sorority as president. She married Austin business executive Malcolm Hiram Reed. She had two daughters before her husband died unexpectedly. She remarried but was widowed again. She subsequently married a lawyer Charles Edward Crenshaw (1914-1999). (This made champion golfer Ben Crenshaw

Ben Crenshaw

Ben Daniel Crenshaw is an American professional golfer.Crenshaw was born in Austin, Texas. He attended and played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas, where he won three NCAA Championships from 1971 to 1973...

 Roberta's stepson.)

Recognition

On May 5, 2004 the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department began construction of improvements to a section of the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail under the MoPac Bridge (built in 1973) on the north side of the trail's pedestrian bridge crossing the lake. Crenshaw was "very instrumental" in getting the Texas Department of Transportation to pay for and install the pedestrian bridge. The bridge was later designated the Roberta Crenshaw Pedestrian Walkway by a July 18, 2004 vote of the Austin City Council and dedicated on April 18, 2005. A plaque at the north entrance to the bridge notes her contributions to Austin's parks and culture.

She was awarded the Austin Community Keepsake Award for her volunteerism work to improve the quality of life for Central Texas residents.

She was awarded the Sue and Frank McBee Visionary Award for longstanding commitment to historical preservation in the Greater Austin area.