Miss Elizabeth Garrett

Elizabeth Garrett (1884-1947) was a nationally acclaimed soprano and composer. She wrote the songs "El Paso" and "O, Fair New Mexico", state song of New Mexico. Garrett had been rendered blind almost from birth by an excessive application of blue vitrol (a copper sulfate chemical) to her eyes. Blue vitrol was used to prevent infection, a common practice in those days. Elizabeth received a high school education and basic training at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin and became a qualified voice and piano teacher. She soon found herself performing in respected theaters in Chicago and New York. She was called the "Songbird of the Southwest", because of her compositions about the far-west land of New Mexico. The New Mexico Legislature was so impressed by her song "O, Fair New Mexico", that they made it the state song in 1917. Her father was Pat Garrett, sheriff of Lincoln County, NM. During that time, he captured and killed Billy the Kid. He served as sheriff in New Mexico before Garrett was appointed El Paso Collector of Customs in 1901. The family stayed in El Paso for 5 years, before they returned to Dona Ana County.

Area: Central / Downtown

Collection: Stout-Feldman Studio Photographs

Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library - Special Collections Department

Reference ID: PH074-1610-2

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

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19 September 2021 by Eva K Ross

March is Women's History Month every year in the USA. Miss Garrett is part of history of music in Southwest.

01 April 2016 by Kristi Sprinkle

I love this. I am putting together the second museum for the Texas School for the Blind and will link to you. There is a Pat Garrett biography that also tells the story of this lady. In my matriculation books, She is entered, but her father never put an address in - "will call the school' - I suspect that was for the school's protection.