ELIZABETH R. TURNER ’86

ELIZABETH R. TURNER ’86, a former resident of Bethesda, Md,, died on Oct. 12, 2003, at the Baylor University Medical Center, in Dallas, Texas. She had been suffering from leukemia.

Elizabeth was born in Bethesda and graduated from Winston Churchill High School, a valedictorian and member of the National Honor Society. She attended Wesleyan University, graduating in 1986. She worked as a paralegal for Williams & Connolly, in D.C., before attending Harvard Law School; and worked at Miller and Chevalier, in D.C., between her first and second years of law school. She received the Juris Doctor degree in 1990, and then moved to Dallas to join the law firm of Hughes & Luce, specializing in estate planning and trusts. She became a partner in 1999.

At Winston Churchill, Elizabeth developed a strong and continuing interest in stagecraft, along with her interest in choral singing, and, at Wesleyan, extended that interest to performing and writing for the musical stage, and adding singing lessons to her curriculum. At Harvard, she was president of the Harvard Law School Drama Society and helped stage and appeared in the 30th annual law school show, a musical, The Crimson Slippers. In her early years in Dallas, she continued voice lessons and began writing for and performing in the annual Bar None satirical musical revues put on by the Dallas Bar Association, to raise money for law scholarships. When her illness prevented her performing, herself, she still contributed her ideas and songwriting. And, last spring, she performed in the XVIII Bar None revue, My Big Fat Geek Lawyer.

Elizabeth worked on construction projects with the Dallas chapter of Habitat for Humanity, co-chaired the Dallas Bar Association’s Community Involvement Committee, and became an active member of Altrusa International, Inc., serving on the board. She gave lectures at legal conferences and published several articles in law journals. In 2001, the magazine Texas Lawyer named her one of the “Top Forty Under Forty” lawyers in the state of Texas. She was admitted as a Fellow of the Dallas Bar Foundation and elected a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Elizabeth was also cited as an “unsung hero” in Head Notes, the monthly newsletter of the Dallas Bar Association. In all her associations, people knew Elizabeth for her intellect, humor, sensitivity, and her profound concern for the well being of others.

She is survived by her fiance, Joshua Kamman of Dallas; her mother and father, Nancy and Bob Turner of Gaithersburg, Maryland; her borhter, Michael Turner of Takoma Park, Maryland; and her sisters, Christie Degener of Pittsboro, North Carolina, and Wendy Sullivan of Gaithersburg.