Former Austin Mayor Carole Keeton dies at 85: 'One tough grandma'

Yahoo

27-03-2025

Carole Keeton, who went from being a 37-year-old mayor of Austin as a single mother of four boys to the "one tough grandma" in charge of Texas' finances a generation later, was remembered as a political trailblazer with a dervish-like personality that "filled a room."
She died around midday Wednesday surrounded by family in the home in Austin's Tarrytown neighborhood that her grandparents had built. She was 85.
"Mom was first in a lot of things — first woman mayor of Austin, first woman comptroller, but first of all she was a mom and a grandma," said her son Brad McClellan, an Austin lawyer. "Always the most important things were her sons — my brothers — and her grandkids. There's no question about that."
Keeton, the daughter of a legendary dean of the University of Texas law school and the mother of a White House press secretary, served three terms as Austin mayor from 1977 until 1983. Austin's current mayor, Kirk Watson, said Keeton's imprint on the city and on Texas is lasting and genuine.
"Carole Keeton was a historic figure in Austin and the state," said Watson, whose first stint as mayor came after Keeton was the first woman to hold that office. "Importantly, she gave so much of herself to the city and state she loved and to the people both as a community and individually."
Before serving as mayor, Keeton was the first woman to preside over the Austin school board. And after her city service, she was three times elected to statewide office.
"She was a powerful personality that filled a room and pushed people to think about the future but also made you laugh at the drop of a hat," Watson said.
Keeton — who also was known as Carole Keeton, Carole Keeton McClellan, Carole Keeton Rylander and Carole Keeton Strayhorn during her long public service career — after serving as mayor, made an unsuccessful bid in 1986 to unseat longtime U.S. Rep. J.J. "Jake" Pickle, running as a Republican in the heavily Democratic district. Eight years later, she was elected to one of three seats on the Texas Railroad Commission. In 1998, she won a razor-close race to be the state's top financial officer.
An irrepressible campaigner, Keeton announced that she would challenge incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the 2006 Republican primary. It was an uphill battle from the start, so she shifted gears and rebranded herself as an independent.
Keeton came in third in a crowded field that also featured Democratic former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell and entertainer Kinky Friedman, who also ran as an independent.
An attempted comeback as a candidate for Austin mayor in 2009 also came up short.
Keeton' father was W. Page Keeton, who was the UT law school's dean from 1949 until 1974. And her youngest son, Scott McClellan, served as White House press secretary during President George W. Bush's administration.
During her career holding statewide political office, Keeton embraced the nickname of "One tough grandma," which became both her moniker and her campaign slogan.
Known for a rapid-fire speaking style that included her own coined aphorisms, including "the Girl Scout Cookie Index" to measure economic conditions and "too much month at the end of the money" to illustrate the challenges of people living paycheck to paycheck, Keeton campaigned as a relatable everywoman in Texas.
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Former Austin Mayor Ron Mullen, who served on the City Council in the late 1970s and early 1980s with Keeton and succeeded her as mayor, said she "was really quite an achiever."
"To think about the frontiers that she overcame being a woman," Mullen said. "She was a unique person who really was a high achiever to help our city grow and flourish."
Brad McClellan, one of Keeton's four sons, said his mother's public life was just part of his upbringing and continued after he and his brothers had grown and started families of their own.
He recalled that in her first campaign for mayor, she was the only woman in the crowded field. She earned a spot in the runoff and won the race in a nail-biter that was not finally decided until the wee hours of the morning after the election.
Supporters of the other candidates, McClellan recalled, said the rigors of being mayor of Austin was "too tough for a woman."
"This is 1977 Austin, Texas, even then the most progressive liberal city in Texas," he said.
But, McClellan added, even as a single mother, Keeton had more than enough energy for every aspect of her life.
"She'd be doing laundry in the middle of the night, and then get up to take us to school," he said. "And then she'd go to City Council. I don't think she ever slept."
Keeton remained politically involved even after her days of seeking public office had ended. In 2012, her organization Austinites For Action helped pass a proposition to improve access to health care in Travis County with a modest increase in property taxes.
And in her only social media post on the platform Threads on Nov. 1, just days before Election Day, Keeton made an impassioned plea on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee and then-Vice President Kamala Harris as well as for U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who was challenging incumbent Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate.
"I vote for protecting individual freedoms and rights in law and in reality, putting families first, a government for all the people unifying and caring not controlling, and a government in the sunshine for truth," she wrote under the handle "onetoughgrandma."
Such actions, McClellan said, underscored her commitment to public spiritedness.
"She was born in Austin, Texas, and died in Austin, Texas," her son said. "She loved this city and this state more than anything besides the family."
In addition to Brad and Scott McClellan, Keeton is survived by sons Mark and Dudley McClellan, and nine grandchildren.
Keeton's family will be holding a private service for her and will organize a public memorial in the next couple of months, according to her obituary.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Austin Mayor, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton dies