Ring, Elizabeth L. Fitzsimmons, 1857-1941

Social worker and reformer Mrs. Henry F. “Elizabeth L.” Ring (1857–1941), daughter of Henry and Elizabeth L. Fitzsimmons, was born in Houston, Texas, in 1857. After attending Miss Brown's Young Ladies Boarding and Day School, she married attorney Henry Franklin Ring in 1880. Ring held numerous leadership roles for reform movements within Texas, including president of the Ladies’ Reading Club and chairman of the library committee of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1899, she led campaigns to persuade the state to fund libraries throughout Texas and appoint a state library commission. Ring was also the acting director of the Houston Foundation during World War I and helped establish Houston’s city recreation department. Twice elected president of the Houston Federation of Women's Clubs, she lobbied for legislation supporting working women and children. In the 1920s, Ring successfully campaigned for prison reform, resulting in improvements to the Texas prison system and the formation of the Texas Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor.

Source: Endelman, Sharon Bice. “Ring, Elizabeth L. Fitzsimmons.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed February 15, 2011. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fri19.

...